


Write An Album, Just For Me

by casstayinmyass



Series: Chords And Kisses [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Celebrity, Alternate Universe - Romantic Comedy, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bottom Poe Dameron, Charming Poe, Concerts, Dog BB-8, Domestic Fluff, Drama & Romance, Established Relationship, Everyone Kinda Just Needs A Hug In This One, F/M, Family Feels, Finn Needs A Hug, Finn Skywalker, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Folk Singer Poe Dameron, Gay Poe Dameron, Health Issues, Hollywood, Hux Has No Chill, Hux is Not Nice, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Kissing, Kylo Ren Smokes, Kylo Ren is Not Nice, Luke Skywalker is a dad, M/M, Manager Qui-Gon, Mutual Masturbation, Mutual Pining, Phone Sex, Poe Dameron Hurts So Prettily, Poe Dameron Needs A Hug, Pop Star Kylo Ren, Rey Needs A Hug, Rey Skywalker, Rey is Finn's Sister, Romantic Fluff, Sassy Qui-Gon, Self Confidence Issues, Sequel, Singer Poe Dameron, Singing, Snoke Being a Dick, Twitter, Writer Finn, but he's okay, top finn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 21:37:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13510254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/casstayinmyass/pseuds/casstayinmyass
Summary: Two years after they got together, Poe and Finn are living the peaceful life they both wanted… until Kylo calls Poe and lets him in on a secret that could ruin their careers. As the couple packs up to follow the pop star to LA and sort things out, family trouble arises, and Finn has to stay in New York. Finn and Poe must be strong together from far apart, but can their relationship last when life seems to be pulling them apart?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So happy to be getting this sequel out! I posted the last one on Jan. 28, 2016, so this is exactly two years later. Comments keep my stormpilot heart going! <3

  

** July **

The midday sun filtered in through the windows of the New York high rise, washing over tidy furniture.

"Did you water the plants?"

Poe's smile was teasing as Finn came around the corner of their apartment, taking off the rubber gloves he had on. Finn pointed right at his boyfriend, eyes wide-- he had just finished an hour of cleaning the bathroom, and he was not in the mood.

"Poe Dameron, I vowed I would never water another plant for you in my life."

"I think it'd be good practice," Poe said.

"Practice for what?"

"Not killing every plant I own."

"I thought you found it charming," Finn smirked, "You wrote it into a song, remember?"

"That was purely me trying to get back into your pants," Poe laughed.

"Sometimes practice doesn't make perfect," Finn said, throwing out all the paper towels he had used for cleaning, "Case in point, your boy over here."

Poe chuckled and opened up his arms, beckoning. Finn dropped everything by the kitchen sink, and dragged his feet over to the singer lying on the couch, faceplanting into him. It was only because Poe looked so cute in his fighter pilot pajama pants. They were getting so old and ratty now that the waistband was loose, and Finn could see the defined V of Poe's hips along with a happy trail he really wanted to kiss his way down.

"Mmmph. The least you could have done was sprayed the mirror," Finn mumbled into Poe's shirt, and Poe took to stroking his boyfriend's head.

"I just finished an entire morning of laundry. I don't think so, buddy," he whispered, and Finn snorted, lifting his head. Poe admired Finn in his lap.

"You look good in my shirt."

"I look good in everything you own," Finn retorted, "Your jacket, your shirts-"

"My boxers."

Finn blushed. "No, those look better on you. I just have to steal them sometimes, when you don't feel like doing the laundry."

Their noses touched, and Finn leaned forward, looping his arms around Poe's neck and kissing him. He couldn't get over the fact that he could do that whenever he wanted now, and Poe couldn't either. Needless to say, they kissed a lot.  

"I know I slack off sometimes. But you're hot when you clean for me," Poe murmured against Finn's lips and Finn drew back, eyebrows raised.

"That's offensive," he prodded Poe's chest as the singer laughed. He got back up, going back to finish up in the kitchen. Poe launched himself up to make lunch. It was a lazy Sunday, the day of the week they normally did all the stuff that needed to get done around the house together, and thankfully, they had done the groceries last week, so they didn't have to leave the apartment at all today.

"You hear from Rey at all lately?" Poe asked, digging around in the fridge and scratching his ass.

"Yeah," Finn smiled warmly, "Her first term is finished at the space agency, and she's dying to start her next one. Apparently she's on the honours list already."

"Probably means she's top of the class, but she doesn't wanna brag," Poe filled in.

"Nah," Finn shook his head fondly, "My sis has no bragging hesitation, if she was she'd be shoving it in my face."

Poe chuckled. "I kinda miss her downstairs. I'm proud of her, though. She's chasin' her dream." Poe swivelled Finn around, and pushed him against the counter. "I'm glad I chased mine. If I hadn't..." his lips trailed up Finn's jaw, barely touching, "I never would have met you, baby." He attached his lips to Finn's neck. Finn groaned, and grabbed Poe by the shoulders, flipping them around again so that he was the one holding the shorter man there. Slowly, he began to work his hands under Poe's white shirt, and grazed his hands over his boyfriend's chest, causing hips to buck both ways.

"Hmm... this is turning into a nice Sunday," Poe grinned lazily, and Finn captured his lips again, working Poe's shirt off of him. When he was shirtless, Finn took his own off, and they continued making out like that for a few minutes in only their pants, Finn's finger hooked under Poe's chin to slightly tilt him up.

"I had a dream that went something like this last night," Finn smirked.

"Yeah? Is that why you're so eager to get me naked?" Poe teased, running his hands up and down his boyfriend's sizeable biceps. Finn smiled, biting his lip, and his hands snaked back to squeeze Poe's ass.

"Poe, I love that you're mine."

"Likewise."

BB-8 barked, but Poe kept Finn focused. "Just ignore him, he'll stop." They kissed one more time, only to be fully interrupted by BB-8's incessant yipping around their ankles.

"What, what is it?" Finn looked down in exasperation, to see that the little dog had picked up a piece of garbage he had dropped. Finn sighed, letting go of Poe and taking it from BB-8. "Where were you when I was cleaning?!"

For the past couple of years since they had officially gotten together, Finn and Poe had been hard at work on Poe's last album, which had almost been finished before and now had about five more songs added. This had all been done between shows Poe was working and the book Finn had written and gotten published during that time. It was taking longer than most albums took, especially one from an established singer, but Poe wanted this one to be just right.

So far, his albums each represented a different time in his life, and this one was supposed to represent his contentment and happiness with what he had found in Finn. Of course, the pressure was on, since he had gained tons of new fans, mostly from a younger generation, after doing that internationally known collab with Kylo at Madison Square Gardens. After that, he had been called to different cities to perform random gigs, like Vegas, Austin, Chicago, Philly, and even Toronto in Canada.

In other words, whether he had wanted to or not, he had made himself relevant again.

Poe slipped his shirt back over his head-- they could wait until that night to take their time with each other, they weren't in any hurry. Finn got his shirt back on too, just in case Jon decided to drop in for a surprise visit, or Rey even, who would rant about it for hours if she saw that. On the subject of his old work, Poe recognized his old colleague's voice currently playing on their little home radio. He wondered sometimes if he would ever hear from Ben outside of professional life again. He turned the volume up on the new hit solo.  

_"It's the- the first order of bus-i-ness, yeah the-_

_first order I'm giving you_

_It's the- the first order of what I want, and that's-_

_sure as hell not you!"_

Ah, he sure had a way with words... that song, whatever it was, had definitely been edited for radio.  

Poe had been following Ben's career, just out of curiosity-- apparently, he had broken up with Jessika Pava, the girlfriend he had had their reconciliation song written for in the first place. They had been on again off again in the news, and ultimately ended it a few months ago. Poe really did feel bad for the guy-- he had sorted himself out with the drugs situation at least, but his career had hit a rough patch. He had tried country music for a while, and that was a terrible mistake... but, once he realized his fans loved his original stuff, he stuck with it, and he once again rose back up the charts to billboard pop number one.

Poe's phone began ringing, and Finn tossed it to him. " _It's Jon_ ," he mouthed, and Poe answered.

"Sensei, how are things?"

"Don't go calling me that, unless you're taking my classes," Jon told him over the phone, "I just wanted to check in on you, my boy, and make sure you were still good for Friday."

"Friday," Poe said slowly, frowning over at Finn in a panic. Finn dashed over to the drawer they kept the calendar in, tossing pads and notebooks and pens filled with lyrics and scribbled notes until he found it. He flipped to their month. "Friday, Friday, Friday..." Poe mused, stalling as Finn looked for Friday. He suddenly found it, circled it, and tossed it to Poe, who caught it.

"Yes, you know Friday?" Jon asked expectantly, "Con-"

" _Coney_ Island, of course I know Friday!" Poe spoke over him, reading off of the circled day just in time, "You think I'd forget Coney Island?"

The Irishman sighed. "I do, yes."

"So how's your Sunday been, Jon?" Poe changed the subject, tossing his phone to the counter on speaker. 

"Splendid, thanks. I'm in the area actually-- if you two want to join me, you've got to give me the name of a good coffee joint. You got one?"

"Boy, do I!" Finn called, looking up at Poe. Poe grinned back, knowing just what he was thinking.

"Alright, give us ten minutes. Finn get your pants on, for god's sake, and clean all that off your stomach!"

"Wha-" Finn blushed hard, glaring at his boyfriend, and Jon sputtered over the phone.

* * *

"My favourite boys," Maz looked up at the couple, one hand on each of their cheeks, "It has been far too long since I've seen you both. In person, that is-- I still watch your concerts on the net," she winked at Poe, who smiled down at the cafe owner.

"So you're the one who's made me Youtube famous."  

"Maz," Finn smiled at her as well, "How's the cafe been doing?"  

"Oh, busy busy as usual! Never a dull moment here." She glanced wearily over to two older men having a rather loud argument over a chess board. She suddenly noticed Jon, eyes narrowing as she parted through the two. "Look at this... you brought someone! Who's this tall drink of water?"

"Jon," Poe introduced, and leaned in, " _And he's single_."

"Uh, hello," Poe's manager shook her hand. He tried to hide his flustered blush, "N-nice to meet you. Finn was telling me how great this place was, and we, eh, just had to make a stop."

"Well, I'm glad you did." She raised an eyebrow. "I'll tell you what-- first round of cappuccinos on me," she said, opening her arms, "And I'll even throw in a lemon-cranberry muffin just for your famous boyfriend here, Finn."

Finn smirked. "I'm sure he'll appreciate that."

"I'm sure he will too," Poe licked his lips.

"-If he promises to sell me the very first copy of his new album."

"In fifty years when it comes out? Sure, Maz," Poe joked, "I hope I get the muffin before you get the album."

"Only because I'm feeling nice," she eyed him playfully, and the four sat down around a cozy booth by the back window. The atmosphere of the little cafe hadn't changed a bit-- it had been a while since they'd been there, but they were always welcomed like family.

"Aye, I feel like I haven't had a good sit down in weeks," Jon remarked. "What have you two been up to? I feel like I never ask."

"We've been..." Poe shrugged, looking at Finn, who shrugged back.

"Working on the album."

"Good, that's what I want to hear. Hate to rush you Poe, but I get endless calls every day asking about when that bugger's coming out."

"I don't have an official release date yet," Poe informed him, "Finn's just finishing up the lyrics for a couple more songs, and then I have to figure out a melody. I just want it to be perfect, you know? I think this one means the most to me, out of anything I've ever done. Sometimes though, final songs on an album can be the hardest-- they only come to you through daily experiences."

"Mm," Jon nodded, "Well, godspeed. I know it'll be good, no matter what."

The three of them lifted their coffees in a cheers, and Poe took a bite of his muffin, silently hoping for good luck whenever their album _did_ get finished. It was easy to become successful after a hit song, but if the next album bombs? You're toast.

A little later, they returned to the apartment, prepared to take BB-8 out.

"We've become that couple," Poe remarked, grabbing the dog's leash, and Finn frowned.

"What couple?"

"You know, _that_ couple. That just does boring domestic shit."

"Poe, you're a famous musician--"

"And you're a published author, doesn't change the fact that we have a weekend-coordinated chores list on our fridge."

"Well, I could decorate the list with some stars. Maybe draw a guitar on it to make it more exciting?" Finn asked, and Poe couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. Most likely the former.  

"Finn, baby?"

"What?"

"I love you."

They kissed, and as BB-8 started pouncing on Poe for the same amount of affection, they broke away to take him out. Upon getting back in, Poe rubbed his hands together.

"I say we work on the album a little."

"Now?" Finn asked, looking at the time.

"Sure," Poe shrugged, "We've got time."

So, they settled in, Poe leaning back against the piano and Finn on the couch.

"Guitar or keys?" Poe asked, and Finn considered.

"Try it on chords first actually, we can switch it to keys after if it doesn't work. I just think the tone might sound nicer on guitar, you know?"

Poe nodded, picking up his trusty instrument, and cleared his throat.

 _"_ Alright, here we go.

_Oh darling,_

_Remember when we kissed?_

_It's a thousand singing melodies_

_that I just can't resist_

_Resistance_

_Something now I'll always lack_

_When you take me in your arms_

_Until forever takes me back."_

Finn watched his boyfriend, how his eyebrows furrowed as he sang, and felt just how much Poe put into every song he performed. It was truly a sight to witness the words he wrote coming to life through the medium of Poe’s beautiful voice-- writing with him was the best choice he ever made.

_"But you're my sweet forever_

_never let me go_

_I'll never close my eyes_

_When you're with me, oh no_

_And when the times_

_all stop like the red sea_

_When my heart ceases to beat_

_I'll know you're right there with me_

_Forever, sweet forever..."_

Poe looked up expectantly, putting the guitar aside. "Well?"

Finn nodded, eyes misty. "Sorry. I know I wrote it and all, but that one gets me."

Poe smiled a little. The song was a melancholy one, but it was beautiful, and it was everything he wanted to say to the man sitting across from him. Just as Finn wiped his eyes and jotted down a few notes for the lyrics, Poe's phone began to buzz out of control. Finn looked down, startled, as his own began to go crazy as well, and Poe gave him a look.

"We're never gonna get this thing finished, you know that, right?"

Finn shrugged, and scrolled through his many incoming notifications.  "Hey... they're all from twitter.... Poe, you might wanna-"

Suddenly, as Poe went to pull his own phone out, his laptop began to play one of his old songs from Some Other Galaxy, screen blinking on.

"A video chat? Now?" Poe groaned, "Who the hell is it?" He went over to the computer, casting it up to their flat-screen on the wall and seeing who it was. "Jesus..." His frown transformed at the coincidence. "Hey Finn, you're never gonna believe this."

"Who?" Finn asked, looking up with a snort, "Your dad?"

Poe gave him a look. "Your humour amazes me, babe. No, check it out." He clicked accept, and a familiar face filled the TV screen.

"Poe. Finn."

"Kylo?" Finn joined Poe in the living room, "What are you... doing?"

"Calling you two," he frowned, and Poe shook his head.

"Right, what's up? Good to hear your voice again! How've you been over the past couple years? Shit, has it really been that long now? Blast from the past, man. You look great!" _Except for that man bun_ , he didn't add. "Sorry to hear about Jessika." He tried to bring up everything in one sentence in anticipation.

"Look Poe, I would love to catch up and chat about my snake of an ex-girlfriend," Kylo seethed, that same charming dishonesty present in his voice, "But there are more serious matters at hand right now." Poe waited, and the pop star went on. "Are you sitting down?"

"We... can be," Poe said slowly, and BB-8 jumped in his lap as he and Finn took a seat on the couch. Kylo licked his lips nervously.

"Yeah... so remember my manager? The ginger asshole with the pretty eyes?"

"Pretty?" Finn muttered, and Poe elbowed him.

"Yeah, I remember him. Huk, Hu- something?"

"Hux, Armitage Hux is his name." Kylo nodded. "I slept with him."

Poe stared blankly at the screen. "Oh. Con...gratulations, buddy, I mean-"

"You interrupted our writing session for this," Finn cut in as BB-8 barked, and Poe elbowed him harder. " _Well, he did_ -!"

Kylo held up a black-gloved hand."Please, there's a point to this story, and it's not like you've got to rock a concert in Milan tonight, okay, I'm sure your writing can wait."

Poe smiled tightly. "You haven't changed."

"-Essentially, I slept with Hux as a rebound after breaking up with Jessika for the last time and the next morning, I completely blew him off. Turns out, we weren't on the same page about the whole thing--"

"Understandable," Finn murmured, and rolled away before Poe could elbow him again.

"-And he was quite hurt by my actions." Kylo considered this for a moment. "No, that wasn't the right choice of words. He was quite livid. Pissed off, even. And, um... he did something."

"Okay," Poe encouraged, "What did he do?" 

"Hux was contacted by this... nobody writer, used to be a teacher I think, who bombed his movie deal-- anyway, I don't have time to care about names, but he talked to Hux about something that means bad news for both of us." Finn seemed to catch on, and Kylo swallowed. "Poe... we're being publicly accused of plagiarism on our song, Way Back Into Love."

The shocked silence was ominous.

"Uh... let me get this straight," Poe finally stood up, "Our careers are exploding in our faces right this very minute because you decided to wham bam thank you ma'am your evil manager?"

"That is fundamentally what I am saying, yes."

"Uh, okay… okay… _okaaay_ …. is _that_ why my phone's goin' off?!" Poe asked, holding his phone up and shaking it, "Because of a disgruntled writer who wants to get back at us-- okay look, what's his name? Y-you've gotta tell us the name of the guy Hux is working with." Finn looked up at him in fear with a sure conclusion already in mind. Poe shook his head at him, hissing, "It can't be him. It can't."

Kylo sighed in frustration, and took out his own phone, scrolling through. Poe and Finn did the same, and Finn nodded slowly.

"Look," he breathed, and Poe, despite his temporarily dizzied vision, looked down at the phone.

_"Bestselling Author **Snoke Plagueis** Accuses Poe Dameron, Lyricist Finn Skywalker, and Pop Sensation Kylo Of Plagiarizing His Follow Up Novel From 2015." _

"That fucking bastard!" Poe sputtered, "The fuckin' egotist couldn't just crawl back into the shadows after we proved him wrong?!" Finn took his phone back before Poe could toss it across the room.

"Hux must pay for this," Kylo said, and Poe looked back at the screen, almost forgetting he was still there.

"Yeah, you might wanna get on the phone with your vengeful ex-boyfriend there and ask him to maybe not _ruin our lives_?!"

Finn shook his head. "I can't imagine someone's dick being so good that I'd join up with a disaster like Snoke to ruin their career over it."

"Okay, both of you listen, Hux was never my _boyfriend_ , I want to get that much straight."

"Ben, our lives could actually be ruined by this. Look at what everyone is tweeting!" Poe checked his twitter, which he had barely even learned how to use a year ago, where **#waybackintolies** was trending, Snoke's repulsively smug face that Finn and Poe assumed they would never see again popping up in every relevant article as people tweeted a firestorm.

"I mean, look what people are saying!"

 

 

 

"I'm gonna be sick," Finn muttered, and Poe squeezed a hand on his shoulder, turning back to Kylo.

"We've gotta do something about this."

Kylo nodded. "I've already spoken to my new manager, Moff Tarkin. I'm on a private jet to LA tomorrow afternoon, that's where they've been spreading this story, I'll update you on--"

"Ohhh no buddy, if you're going out there, I'm goin' too," Poe gritted his teeth, and Finn raised his eyebrows.

"Poe--"

"No, this is something that's gotta be dealt with as soon as possible, in person," Poe told his boyfriend, and by the dread in the singer's eyes, Finn knew not to argue.

"Fine. I'll have a car sent for both of you tomorrow."

"Good, thanks," Poe said, running a stressed out hand through his hair, and picked up BB-8 in his arms. "And make a place for my dog, too." He groaned, and turned back to Kylo. "What did you even _see_ in that guy anyway?"

"He said he was into masochism, the power dynamics worked out perfe-"

"Never mind, forget I asked." Poe exhaled, looking at the TV. "Alright. Good chat!"

After he had said goodbye to Ben, his phone rang.

"Jon."

"Poe, sorry to disrupt your evening with this mess, but--"

"Plagiarism. Got it. A little late to the party, man. You fancy a trip to LA tomorrow?"

"Does one ever?" Jon muttered, and Poe would have laughed if he didn't feel like crying.

* * *

That night in bed, a significant amount of time was spent scrolling through all the tweets under that stupid hashtag.

"We're going tomorrow. Try to stop thinking about it tonight," Finn sighed. Poe turned to him in bed.

"I can't, Finn. He's trying to ruin us through that song, for what we did to him two years ago. He can't fucking do that! There's gotta be some way to prove he's lying... again!"

"Take it one step at a time. Remember when I was freaking out over him? What did you tell me?"

Poe deflated. "That he was just some blowhard, lying for attention?"

Finn nodded. "Exactly. He's just doing what he knows'll work on us! If we're gonna keep our heads through this and figure it out with Kylo tomorrow, we can't let Snoke get in your head, like he got in mine. We just have to deal with this carefully, before it really blows up."

Poe breathed out. "God, what would I do without you, Finn?"

"Kill somebody or kill yourself trying, now look, we have to know all the facts, and what he's claiming first before we go into this. It says here, Snoke claims that the song came out after his second book by the same name of the song, written about his separation from his ex-wife, and contained "too many parallels to leave alone"." Finn tossed his phone down on the comforter. "God, I can even _hear_ him saying shit like that. Fucking asshole."

"Your old professor sure is a piece of work," Poe agreed, "I hate how many times I’m being reminded of that.”

“Yeah, right?”

“I'm totally gonna dream about that one time I punched him out tonight."

"Well... he, uh... he punched you out," Finn reminded, "After you shoved breadsticks in his mouth. Which led to me patching you up, and then—"

“We had sex,” Poe grinned, wiggling his eyebrows. Finn sighed disapprovingly.

“Yeah, keep the goal in mind, babe." Poe let out another frustrated noise, and Finn reached over. "Hey. I'll be there with you through it all. Promise, okay?"

"Yeah," Poe nodded, smiling a little, "Okay."


	2. Chapter 2

Bags were packed in the morning. Poe hated LA, with all the stuffy executives, street disguises, and materialism, so he wasn't in the best of moods, but at least he would have Finn with him. He made breakfast as Finn got ready, warming up some pizza because he still couldn't cook, as he thought back to all the evenings he had spent working on that damn song with the man currently shaving in their shared bathroom, his then-plant caregiver and accidental lyricist.

_And Plagueis had the nerve to accuse them of plagiarism. Plagiarism! That snooty hack god damn wishes he had ideas worth stealing. One lie with his first ego-trip book wasn't enough, apparently- he's out for blood now._

Poe faintly heard Finn on the phone in the bathroom as he plated their "breakfast", and scooped up his dog into his arms as he fired off a quick text to Jon, confirming they would be leaving soon. Poe got another text back that Jon would meet him in LA, after handing the reigns over to someone who would run his karate classes while he was away. He was flying coach on Air America to spare himself the awkward re-introductions and small talk that flying with Poe's former collaboration partner would entail.

Going over the logistics of the trip again in his mind, Poe looked in the living room mirror for guidance as he hooked the gold chain his mother gave him around his neck. He had just recently found it again after years packed away in a storage box, and remembered how he used to wear it everywhere when he was younger. It made him feel safe… reminded him of what he had.

 Finn came out of the bathroom, lips still covered in toothpaste.

"Hey babe, do you have the valium spray we got from the vet a couple months ago for Beebs?" Poe regarded his boyfriend's shocked face, and slowed down. "What is it? Finn?" Finn kept standing there, looking just about as floored as Poe had last night. "Hey... have you had a life changing revelation? Realized you made a terrible mistake moving in with me and you can do a billion times better?" He smirked. When Finn didn't return the joke or roll his eyes, Poe knew something else was up. "Finn... you good, buddy?" Finn began to shake his head, bottom lip quivering ever so slightly, and Poe rushed over. "Hey, you're scarin' me, talk to me, you okay?" Finn clutched onto him suddenly.

"Poe... m-my dad's had a heart attack."

Poe paled. "Luke had a heart attack?"

"Uh huh. I just got off the phone with Rey-- she's in the hospital with him right now."

Another stab of heartache. "Finn... o-oh my god, is he stable? Is he gonna be okay? Fuck!"

"They don't know, thankfully Rey was visiting him when it happened. It took a while to get him to a hospital here on the mainland, but she's with him, and he's still breathing."

"Jesus..." Poe shook his head. He and Luke had become incredibly close since he had gotten together with Finn. Ever since the first night they had dinner together with Rey as a family, Luke had entertained Poe with stories of his career, personal stories, and talk of common interests. He even taught Poe a thing or two about flying around a year ago, in an old abandoned hangar.

Luke was like the father Poe never had; it would feel like he lost his own dad if anything were to happen to him.

"Poe?" Finn asked, shaking his shoulder gently, "Poe, Rey's gonna call me with more information every--"

"No," Poe shook his head. "No, you've gotta be there with him."

"What? No, we're on our way to fix _this_ \--"

"Finn, that's your dad! I can deal with the career shit, you have to go and see and your father."

"Poe," Finn looked pained, "I don't want to leave you. I don't want to say goodbye." He knew he had to see Luke in the hospital and be there for his big sister, but his boyfriend needed him now more than ever.

"Finn," Poe countered, holding him by the shoulders, "Please go. I'll be fine-- a phone call away." He leaned in, and pressed a soft kiss to Finn's lips. "You'd better update me as often as you can, alright?"

Finn wiped a tear away. "Yeah, okay."

"We're both gonna need to do some serious fighting these next few days," Poe said, taking Finn's hands in his and squeezing. Finn nodded, and kept nodding. "Finn, you're not letting me down, okay? Okay? Listen to me. This is your family. They need you."

"You need me too-"

"And you need me to be there for you, Finn, but we're all caught up in a big fucking mess thanks to Snoke." He pressed a kiss to his forehead. "Remember what I said. I want updates." Poe stroked his boyfriend's arm, then grabbed his duffel bag. "Give Rey a hug for me, and if Luke wakes up, be sure to tell him that I wish I could be there."

"But... you won't have anyone in LA," Finn said, his voice breaking as he fiddled with Poe’s chain.

Poe sighed. "I'll have someone."

\-----

"You and your animal can have the back row of seats, but the rest of the plane is mine," Ben told Poe, and Poe shoved his bag up into the compartment, holding BB-8 against his chest. He was going to borrow back his own brown jacket that Finn had adopted for the trip, but realized it might be nice for Finn to have with him at the hospital to feel like he was there with him. So, he was now dressed in an old black cargo jacket and jeans, orange and white beanie stuck over his mess of brown curls.

"Sure." His eyes drifted over to the right side of the jet, where a distinguished, gaunt looking older man sat, sipping tea with a magazine. He had grey hair and sunken eyes, and by process of elimination, Poe assumed that was Ben's new manager he had mentioned, Moff. He looked like he wanted no part in any idle conversation with his client-- Poe liked Ben, but he didn't blame the guy.

"And the complimentary energy drinks?" Kylo sat on this for a second, thinking. "No, you can have some of those. I like you, you're my friend."

"Uh huh," Poe said, settling in. "Thanks pal, 'preciate it."

"Not a problem. Poe, you remember Phasma?"

The towering blonde stepped out from the curtains beside Poe, tightening a fist and glowering down at him. "Oh... how could I forget?" he gave her a nervous wave.

"You can just ring the bell if you need anything, and she'll will deal with it," Ben nodded from his side of the jet.

"Anything," she emphasized, cracking a few knuckles, and Poe smiled at her, tugging his beanie down a little lower over his eyes.

For the duration of the flight from JFK to LAX, Poe thought about how many miles he was flying away from Finn, and someone who he desperately wanted to know was okay. He couldn't get updates, as there was no reception up there, but he planned to call immediately upon touchdown.

"Phasma!" he suddenly heard, and the ringing of a bell accompanied the call as Moff rubbed his temples. "Tell Poe that we have Netflix on the jet, so he can take advantage of it."

Phasma walked over to the folk singer. "Kylo would like to inform you, we have the complimentary streaming service of Netflix available for your viewing pleasure."

"Fuck! Could you make it sound any more fucking boring?!" Ben barked. Poe looked over his seat.

"Thanks for the heads up about the, uh, the Netflix! I'll be sure to check it out."

Phasma walked back over to the pop star. "Mr. Dameron wishes to inform you--"

"I know, I heard him," Kylo snapped. "Wait, before you go, get me a Zombie from the mini bar. But, like, non-alcoholic, I wanna save the good booze for tonight. So all the stuff that goes into a Zombie, taken out, with just the juice and shit." He turned to her again. "Tell Poe-- you know what, fuck it-- Poe! You want a Zombie to hold you over until LA?!"

Poe shook his head, stroking BB-8 behind his floppy little ears. No, he did not want a virgin Zombie to hold him over. All he wanted was to make sure Finn and Rey hadn't lost their dad.

He sighed, slipping in earbuds with an instrumental track playlist. Only one more hour to go.

\-----

"Skywalker, Finn Skywalker," Finn gave his name at the front desk at the hospital emergency ward, "My sister Rey is here already with Luke Skywalker, they checked in at 6 this morning."

"Oh, Skywalker," the young woman nodded, "Wing 3, on your right." Her nametag read Rose.

"Thank you, Rose," Finn sighed in relief, patting the desk, and rushed to the designated wing. There, he opened the door, and Rey immediately swung around, getting up and grasping Finn in a hug.

"Peanut," she whispered, and Finn just about broke down hearing how wrecked she sounded. The usually chipper girl looked as though she might burst into tears at any minute, but her resolve and responsibility to be the strong one was preventing her from doing so.

"Are you okay?" Finn pulled away, staring earnestly into her eyes, and she just nodded, turning to the bed and taking her brother's hand in hers.

"Dad's okay, just sleeping. He's at risk for another attack though, his blood pressure is high, and they don't know if--"

"Hey. I asked if _you_ were okay," Finn said, and Rey sighed, plopping down in the chair again.

"Yeah, Finnie, I'm okay. Tired, but..." she managed a smile, "Fine." She bit her lip. "Where's Poe?"

Finn shut the door all the way, sitting opposite her with their dad's bed in the middle. "That's... a bit of a story."

"Well I won't be going anywhere for a while, I'd love to hear it," Luke suddenly spoke up, and coughed a little. Finn and Rey both got up, circling him.

"Dad!"

"Dad, oh thank god, don't talk, don't move--"

"Guys, guys, I'm fine!" Luke started to say, but the monitor began going crazy as he tried to sit up.

"No you're not," Rey said sternly, her tone forceful enough to keep their dad down with his hands up in surrender.

"Okay, I give up," he joked, and winced a little. "What happened?"

"You fell," Rey explained softly, "I was over at your place, remember? You were going to take me on a hike around the island, but..."

"Oh yeah," Luke grumbled, "Then my heart had to go and ruin all the fun, huh?" 

"Dad, it's not your fault," Finn said, moving his own chair closer to the bedside.

"You! You didn't have to come and see me, Finn! Your dad's alright, you've got more important, famous person stuff to be doing, like writing songs and a sequel to that swell book of yours!"

"You read that?" Rey deadpanned.

"You didn't?" Finn and Luke asked her at the same time, and Finn huffed.

"Anyway, of course I came, dad."

"But... Poe. What was that captivating tale you promised us about your beau not being able to make it too?" the older man raised an eyebrow, "Not that I mind."

"For the record, he wanted to be here so bad. He did."

"Oh, tell him no hard feelings. I look forward to taking him out again in my old plane--"

"Not for a while," Rey reminded, and Luke rolled his eyes.

"As my loving daughter commands." As much as Luke made light of the situation as he tended to do, it was anything but that. Finn was worried-- his condition was still very serious, as he could tell from the nurse's grave expression when he told her the name. The writer sat back, figuring a story could distract them all. "Rey, you been on twitter lately?"

"Not since two days ago, why?"

"Well... Poe couldn't be here because, um... you remember Snoke, right?"

Rey's jaw visibly clenched.

\-----

"Oh my god, I want a CIGARETTE!" Ben yelled, and Poe took out an earphone, the bud landing on BB-8's head. The little dog was getting restless on the flight.

"What?"

"I said I want a cigarette," he replied, and Poe frowned.

"Didn't know you smoked."

"I didn't when we worked together. I've recently taken it up, it makes my voice sound just the right amount of dirty when I sing live. Also, my dad always hated smoking, cause my mom did for years, so it's my way of saying fuck him."

"Ah," Poe nodded, "Fair reasoning there."

"At least I'm not craving crack cocaine again," he mumbled, and Poe nodded again, eyes wide.

"Silver lining, for sure."

They flew for about another half hour, the ETA a little shorter due to the speed of the private plane. When they arrived, there was a car waiting for them, which spirited them away to their hotel.

Along Rodeo Drive, they went past a gorgeous, enormous hotel that Poe assumed they were staying at. It looked luxurious and expensive, sort of like the Plaza in New York... but the car kept driving by.

"Oh, you thought we were staying at the Beverly Wilshire?" Ben huffed, "I got banned from that chain of hotels, and can't stay in any Four Seasons again. The one we're staying at is much better."

Poe raised his eyebrows at the one they eventually stopped at. It was tall, thin, had the obligatory amount of palm trees around it, and an outdoor pool that shimmered in the sun.

"The Hollywood Roosevelt," the driver announced.

"It's a hotspot for parties around here," Ben told Poe, to which Poe attempted his best enthusiastic grin.

"Need help with your bags?" the driver asked.

"Yes." "No."

Poe and Ben looked at each other, and Poe cleared his throat.

"Okay... sure, a hand might be nice, thanks." They got up to their room, where Poe murmured a "cheers," and gave the guy a 5. Kylo dug around in his vest and gave him a 50, leaving the folk singer slack jawed. _For that, the driver should give Ben a blow job too, at least._

They went in, and Kylo immediately put his bag down on the bed.  Poe swallowed, noticing that there was only one king sized.

"You know, this is kinda crazy, sharing quarters with you after, y'know, only performing one song together..." Poe remarked nervously. Ben blinked at him.

"You're welcome to a sleepover if you wanna tell ghost stories and braid my hair, but your room is next door, Poe."

"Ah," Poe nodded, picking his bag up again. "Good, makes sense." _More sense than sharing a bed with him, Poe, where's your head, man?_

Poe opened his phone, and dialled his manager.

\-----

"I'm sorry, I'm looking for Kylo, the _pop star_?" Jon asked the concierge lady, who stared at the monitor blankly.

"I'm sorry sir, but... no matter how many times you ask me to check, he's not checked in. The last time someone named Kylo checked in was... six years ago." She frowned at the screen, eyes widening a little as she read the notes on that account. She had two blonde buns on the side of her head, and her name tag read Billie Connex.

"Alright--" Jon pinched the bridge of his nose, "Billie, I suppose they haven't arrived yet. I'll take a room then."

"We're... all full." She bit her lip.

"I'm sorry?" Jon raised an eyebrow in panic.

"What's going on here?" a purple haired lady came over. Jon clutched at his chest.

"Are you the manager?" he breathed.

"I am," she returned, sternly glaring.

"There's no vacancy for the amount of time this man wants to stay," Connex told her softly, and the manager took over.

"Sir, how many days are you staying?" Her voice was cold, unfeeling.

"We were thinking about ten," Jon said, still unable to break free of the trance Purple Hair had him in.

She set her jaw. "Let me see what I can do." She began typing something into the computer. Jon cleared his throat, shaking out of his haze.

"So. Do you go out often?" he smiled at the tall, thin manager. She didn't look up, only smiled shortly.

"Often enough."

"Oh, I was just asking because of the hair." She glared.

"Sir, I'd--"

"Very flashy. Very pretty."

She seemed to hesitate, obviously surprised. "You think so?"

"Yeah."

Her tight lipped, stickler persona faded a little, and she huffed a laugh. "People normally laugh. I... thought I was a bit old to do it, but..."

"Nah, I love it," Jon smiled, "You're never too old for anything. Purple hair, long hair," he tugged his own hippie-length hair, "mountain biking, break the bed sex, you name it, it's still possible."

She grinned, sizing him up. "Jon... is that short for Jonathan?"

"Qui Gon, actually. Unconventional name for an unconventional guy."

"So... the name you go by is Jon Jinn?" she raised an eyebrow as she looked at his ID, and Jon winced, closing his eyes.

"Yeah... parents and LSD are to blame for that disaster."

She shrugged. "Looks like we've both got something kinda weird about us," she said, fluffing her bright purple hair and winking. Jon swore he just fell in love.

Suddenly, they were interrupted by someone clearing their throat behind them-- holy shit, was that Justin Theroux?!

"Oh. W-what room did you want to stay in, sir?"

Now, If Jon was 20 years old and hadn't gone through three unsuccessful marriages, he probably would have returned with something smooth, like: " _yours, doll_ ", but he wasn't, he did, and she looked as though she wasn't in for any nonsense, so he just smiled tightly.

"How about a pool view?"

She typed something into her computer, and bit her lip. "I'm afraid there's..." Biting her lip, she tried something else. "There. Looks like one just opened up."

"Aha. Imagine that," Jon grinned, leaning against the desk. Just then, his phone began to buzz, and he held up a finger politely, turning away.

_"Jon? Where are you?"_

"Where am I- where are _you_?! I'm at the Beverly Wilshire! I thought this would be a place Kylo's book you in." Jon looked around at the spacious lobby he was in.

Poe sighed. "Nope, he's been banned from there."

"Banned?" He cocked his head, looking around again, "Alright, things are starting to make sense. Where in hell _are_ the two of you then?"

"Four of us," Poe corrected, "Ben's got his whole entourage here."

"Splendid. More awkward introductions for me, then!" Jon said, "Just lovely!"

"Just get over to the Hollywood Roosevelt, will you?" Poe chuckled, "Get a room on the sixth floor. It's the pet friendly one."

"Get a room on the sixth floor, he says," Jon spoke to no one in particular as he tucked his phone away again, "How do you fancy that?" He turned to the purple haired woman at the desk. "I'm going to need to cancel that lovely pool view, unfortunately..." She looked genuinely disappointed, and Jon hesitated before leaving. "What's your name?"

"Holdo. Amilyn Holdo."

"So pretty," Jon said, and she tucked a slip of paper into his suit pocket.

"Just like my hair." 

\-----

 Just as Poe was about to start unpacking, he got another call, which he speedily glanced his phone to check. "Finally," he whispered, and got on it. "Finn, babe. What's up?"

"Poe, hi. He's doing okay right now--" Poe breathed a sigh of relief he hadn't realized he'd been holding, "--But they don't know if his condition will change, so they're keeping him here for now."

"So what, are you heading back to the apartment for the night?"

"No, I'll stay here with Rey."

"Hi!" Poe heard in the background, and Poe smiled.

"Put her on?"

"Yeah, sure," Finn smiled too, and gave the phone to Rey.

"Heeeey, Finn's hunky boyfriend," she grinned.

"Hey cute stuff. So Luke's doing alright, hey?"

"I'm kind of the pessimist of the family, so I'm not going to go that far, but he's stable at least. They've got him hooked up."

"So what the fuck happened exactly?"

"Heart attack, they confirmed it. He's been living on that damn island of his away from any possible medical examinations for years, and he obviously didn't know his blood pressure was so high. He doesn't look very healthy..."

"Still Luke in spirit though?" Poe asked.

"Always," Rey smiled. "It'll take a lot to break dad's spirit. Oh, Poe!"

"What?"

"I'm so sorry to hear about what happened with that demon Snoke. He'll get what's coming to him if you're dealing with it."

Poe scoffed. "If I had my way, I'd roast his ass on TV."

"I'd help," Rey added.

"Gimme back the phone, weirdo," Finn nudged her, and she rolled her eyes, doing as he asked. "Poe?"

"Hey."

"Hey, you in the hotel room now?"

"Yeah. It's this sleek, party loft thing in Hollywood."

"I bet you're enthusiastic about that," Finn smirked.

"Oh, thrilled. You know me, the life of any party."

"You are when you get the chance."

"What am I, the dancing queen? I wasn't _that_ into Abba when I was younger."

"I mean, according to you when you were drunk and doing karaoke, yes you were."

"Alright, let me sleep," Poe laughed, unpacking some of his things and scratching BB-8 on the head. "As always, keep me updated-- BB-8 says he loves you. Try to get some sleep yourself."

"Come on, you can't sleep! Kylo's probably having a big party right now!" Finn protested playfully, "You'd disappoint him if you didn't show up."

"He'd better get used to me disappointing him," Poe yawned, "G'night, baby."

"Give Beebs a kiss for me. Night Poe, love you."

 _"Love you!"_ Rey trilled in a high voice, and Poe heard squabbling as the phone line went dead. He laughed to himself softly, and got ready for bed as the imminent sounds of a party starting downstairs prepared to keep him awake. He did love a good party, but Ben's just... weren't his style.

Still, no matter how much sleep he could salvage; tomorrow, Snoke was _going down_.

"Like a drunk college girl," Poe said aloud. BB-8 yipped, and Poe make duck lips at him. "Shhh, come on, get up into bed with me, ya little cotton ball."

* * *

 

The door closed swiftly behind the thin figure who entered the cafe.

"Plagueis," he said, lifting his chin.

"Armitage," the bald man sitting gave a smarmy smile and stood up, shaking the other man's hand. The redhead sniffed, stating in a clipped tone:

"I prefer Hux."

"Very well. Care to sit down?"

Hux looked around, and smirked at the man opposite him. "It's going perfectly-- just as you said. When something starts rolling online, it never stops."

"And it won't," Snoke smiled, "I intend to see to that."

"The hashtag was a genius idea. I remember when Be--" Hux grimaced, scowling, "When my former employer forced me and his marketing team to create this ridiculous trending tag online that said, hashtag, Kylo's Hair Is Real." The corners of his lips began to tug up in a wistful smile, before he caught himself, and wiped it off with a scowl. "It never really caught on, mind, but it did make for some good... oh, what do the kids call them? Memes."

Snoke chuckled. "Juvenile. There really is no wonder why you wish to get at him."

"And what of yours?" Hux smiled, "Poe Dameron and Finn Skywalker?"

"Oh, they won't be finding a way out of this media trap any time soon," Snoke said, "The press is eating up everything I have to say-- this was my way back into the industry, after FN-2187 raked in… less than satisfactory numbers from its silver screen debut. Of course, my wife left me after that, and writing about all the 'heartbreak' in, eh..." he smirked, " _Way Back Into Love_ just to ruin that _child's_ life is recompense for what he did to me as a student in my class."

Hux had heard the story, and he had come to the conclusion at the time that both of them were just petty enough to work perfectly with one another.

"Soon enough," Snoke continued, "That hothead Dameron's albums won't get their labels, and oh, most importantly... _Skywalker_ won't be getting any more book deals." His fist came down on the table, shaking it slightly, and Hux raised an eyebrow at the venom in Snoke's tone.

"Good, then. I thank you for this opportunity. When you reached out to me last year about this, I'm glad I didn't discard your number as I had wanted to at the time... turns out it rather came in handy."

"You are the real one to thank here, Mr. Hux. After all," he leaned in, looking around, "You made your calls to recall my book, change the publication date and re-distribute it, after I realized what a wonderful opportunity to ruin them my new book would be."

"Think nothing of it. Anything to ruin that awful, egotistic, childish man. He has no sense of responsibility _or_ respect!" He cleared his throat. "And the other two, I'm sure they're terrible too." As he recalled, Poe and Finn had been exemplary fellows... whenever Hux interacted with them at the studio, anyway. But, it wasn't his place to argue for their character-- if he was to get what he wanted, Snoke had the last word here.

"May I buy you a coffee?" the bald man asked, "Rare to find another with as much class as I have. It's the least I can do, to thank you."

"I'll take a soy latte, extra hot," Hux told him, and Snoke frowned. "Oh, put some nutmeg on it, would you?" he called.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> snoke called memes juvenile time to end him


	3. Chapter 3

Luke's heart rate beeped on the monitor, a slow, even pace. It was late now, almost midnight, and Rey was taking a night off outside of the hospital, to stay sane. Finn couldn't fall asleep-- his leg was restless, and he had a lot of things on the mind this late into the night.

"Finn?"

Finn looked up, and saw Luke awake.

"Hey, dad." His voice came out quiet.

"Can I ask you something?"

Finn nodded, rubbing his eyes. "Sure."

"Why didn't you tell me about your professor sooner?"

Finn was quiet for a moment, thinking of what to say. He could lie and say it slipped his mind, or pull the, 'I'm not going to tell my dad _everything_ about my life' card. But Luke knew him better than that, and Finn knew he owed it to his dad to be honest.

"I didn't tell you because I thought you'd believe him."

Luke lifted his head a little. "What?"

"It's stupid, I know, I just--"

"Finn... you thought I'd believe some blowhard professor over my own son?"

Finn sighed. "I didn't _think_ you would. I was just _scared_ you would. I was insecure. About everything! I still am, but Poe's the reason I was able to stop thinking about what Snoke said. He's got this thing… where he can make me forget anything, I just, I can’t put it into— you know?”

"Oh, I remember. I see the way you look at him. It’s because you're in love," Luke said softly. Finn blinked.

"Yeah, I think I am." He took a deep breath. "It was in all those nights I spent with him, writing songs with him. He sings the songs I write, and when he does, I can't stop thinking about how crazy I am for him. I just wish..."

"You wish you could be there for him," Luke completed in that wise fatherly way, nodding, "I know. This whole mess is typical of someone like Snoke. I knew a couple of winners just like him when I was younger too, told me I was a hotshot who would never have enough temperance to fly. I told them to shove it, that I would, and hey-- I did! Now, who does that sound like?"

"My boyfriend."

"Your boyfriend."

Finn smirked. "Did you ever know anyone? You know, that you loved?"

"I thought I did," Luke nodded thoughtfully, "I met her at work; she was my superior. We hit it off, and after a while we moved into a place in Brooklyn, where she had Rey. It was perfect for a few months... until the fact that we had a kid caught up with us, mostly me, and I panicked when I realized all the responsibility that took."

"That's when you put Rey up for adoption," Finn nodded. He had a vague memory of this story.

"Yes. Something I'm not proud of," Luke said. "But if I hadn't done that, I never would have found you. Anyway, that woman would have been my wife, and your mother, I guess. I was convinced I was in love with her, and I believed myself for the longest time, even after we put our only daughter up for adoption. Until I grew up, and realized I was in love with the _idea_ of a wife."

"So what did you do?" Finn sat forward.

"I tossed the wedding ring I had spent half my life savings on, said damn it all to hell, and went back to get Rey from the adoption center. And that... is where I found you," he smiled. "Of course, the rest is history, I realized I hated the city life and moved out to the island."

"Which ended up being your downfall."

"Not yet," Luke held a finger up.

Finn shook his head. "I couldn't ask for a better dad, you know."

"Oh, don't say that," Luke smiled kindly, "You didn't know me when I was young. I never wanted to take ownership over anything that I did, and I made bad decisions. I was a terrible father."

"But you're not now," Finn replied, "And that's what matters to me-- and Rey."

He and Luke shared a smile.

* * *

"So what's the point of all this?" Poe asked, slipping on his sunglasses.

"In order for the media to pick up that we're here, we have to go out and let ourselves be seen."

"Ben, buddy... that's what we have managers for."

Ben blinked, bringing a lighter to spark the cigarette dangling from his lips. "Yes, I know that. I just... have some business to take care of."

"With your bodyguard?" Poe raised an eyebrow, looking behind them at Phasma.

"I always have Phasma with me, I have to," Ben replied, putting on his own pair of sunglasses, and Poe followed.

"Alright... Jon's making calls today to the reps of local hosts." Jon was also looking after BB-8, as usual.

"Moff's doing the same," Ben nodded, dragging on his smoke, and Poe looked behind him once more to the door of the hotel. Why couldn't they just stay home until they booked a show?

“What kind of business?”

“OH MY GOD, IT’S KYLO!”

Ben began to smirk, and Poe rolled his eyes.

“Right. That kind of business. So you and your delicate ego needed affirmation that you weren't in fact, completely shunned in the public eye just yet."

"I don't have a delicate ego," Ben snapped, "And what's the point of being famous if you don't enjoy it once and a while?" In seconds, they were bombarded with flashing phone cameras  
and cries of affection.

“Kylo, pleeeease sign my leg!”

“Your leg? Your fucking leg?” Ben asked the girl, and she nodded excitedly, yanking up her pants. Poe stifled a laugh, pushing his sunglasses up further, but someone took notice of him too.

“Poe Dameron!”

A high pitched squeal broke out, and soon, Poe had his own little crowd.

“Oh my god oh my _gooood_ , are you and Kylo doing another song together? Oh my god, you're probably here recording an album together, _ahhh_!”

Suddenly, another voice rang out.

“Liars!”

Kylo and Poe turned, and a couple more people started shouting that as well.

“Thieves!”

“You stole that poor guy’s idea from his book!” one girl snapped, and Kylo scoffed.

“Look, little girl, you have no idea what you’re—"

She kicked him in the shin, and Phasma stepped forward, ready to pound her, before Poe jumped in front of her, putting his arms up.

“Okay, we're not going to punch the little girl, let’s just get going, alright?”

“No, these people need to know the truth,” Kylo retorted, turning around to try and give the naysayers some sort of message.

“Hey... they will,” Poe muttered, checking the text on his phone from Jon and holding it up, “We’ve got a show tomorrow night, Conan O’Brien.”

* * *

The café was small—it was no Maz’s, but it had the same kind of homey charm, which was strange for Hollywood.

“Poe, would you get me a croissant?” Ben asked, scrolling through his phone. He flipped his black hair out of his eyes and Poe regarded his black suit—how did this guy ever pass for a country singer during that period of his career?

“Okay, look buddy,” Poe sighed, setting his cappuccino down, “I’m just gonna level with you. I don’t work for you anymore, so I don’t have to kiss your ass.”

“You were… you were kissing my ass?” Ben asked, those puppy dog eyes returning, “You mean you didn’t genuinely care for me as a friend?”

“Cut it out, of course I did,” Poe scowled, “But there were times when… well, when I didn’t speak my mind because I was so hyped about getting to work with someone as famous as you, and kinda… jumpstarting my career again, y’know? Now, I can tell you what I really think.”

Ben nodded. “Fair. What do you really think, Poe?”

“I think you’re a spoiled brat who had a terrible home life, and you take it out by making loud, angry music and treating everyone around you like inferiors.” He took a sip of his coffee as Ben stared pensively at the painting of Britney Spears beside them, stroking his facial hair.

“Valid.”

“Oh,” Poe swallowed. "Yeah?”

“Yeah. I can’t believe I’ve been paying a psychiatrist to explain my life to me when I could have simply asked my good friend Poe Dameron,” Ben nodded, and Poe blinked. Was he being sarcastic, or...?

“Right. O-kay. Well, I--"

"Where did you go for your degree, Dr. Poe, fucking God Complexes R Us?"

"Ben, oh my--"

"Oh no that's right, it was I don't give a flying fuck collegiate," Ben nodded, slamming his cup down so hard it broke. Poe rubbed his temples.

"Dude, I didn't mean to piss you off, I just--!"

"Hey, hey-- I'm fucking with you." Poe looked up, and Ben was grinning. "I'm fucking with you, man. I'm not that big of an asshole." Poe's eyes fell down to the broken cup, and Ben nodded. "I took it a bit far."

"Ben..."

"Poe, I value your honesty. I really do. My life is fucked up. My dad didn't care about me when I was a kid, and my mom was complicit, so I started doing drugs. My life spiraled, I signed with a manager when I was 19 because I thought, 'what the hell, my life can't get any worse from here' and then stole an extra large milkshake from Burger King. Instead of going to jail that night, I ended up getting a record label for my look and getting billions of dollars to spend on more drugs, so I could pretend I didn't have a family and everything was just smiles and rainbows from here to Rhode Island."

Poe was quiet. "Wow."

"I didn't tell you all that for you to mope around with me about how much life fucking sucks. I just want you to keep being honest with me, even when I'm being a massive jerk."

Poe managed a smirk. "Even if it's always?"

"Going off of social cues from everyone I know, I assume that yes, it would be always."

Poe laughed a little, and shrugged. "Well, I'm glad you're taking it... somewhat well. I just wanted to get that off my chest, because my dishonesty with you was the reason I had landed in some pretty hot water with Finn that year. You know, with the song?”

“You two were fighting?” He seemed genuinely upset by this.

“Yeah, for a while. He wanted to tell you that version was crap, I told him not to ‘cause I thought you would fire us, and that caused a bit of a…” Poe took another sip, thinking, “Rift, in our relationship.”

“I’m so sorry if I caused any of that,” Ben stared at Poe, reaching a hand out. Poe awkwardly gave the hand a squeeze, and shook his head slowly.

“No, it was shit we had to work out between us.”

“Well, I’m glad you did—you two are extremely cute together.” Ben hummed, taking a sip of his own s'mores frappucino. “Creative differences can get tricky, but no good collaborations come without it.”

Poe smiled. “You know, that’s the most intelligent thing you’ve said all day.”

Ben frowned. “Thank you?”

"So, you really slept with Hux?" Poe smirked, and Ben nodded, smiling.

"Uh huh. He was amazing."

"Better than Jessika?"

"In many ways, yes."

"Well, I honestly didn't know you swung both ways, man."

Ben shrugged. "Labels are bullshit. Sexuality is fluid. I swing all ways. Like a fucking baboon."

Poe nodded slowly. "So... what was it about him you liked? His smile? His eyes?" He didn't want to cause any bad memories to resurface for the pop star after everything Hux had done since, but at the same time, he was genuinely curious as to what Ben saw in that angry little guy.

"Well, he had this thing that he did with his ass--"

“Okay, you still want that croissant?” Poe quickly got up.

“No, no,” Ben began to smile a little, off in a daydream about Hux's ass, “I’ll get it.”

* * *

“Hey,” Finn whispered to his sister in the hospital room. Rey looked up at him from her magazine.

“Hey-- did you know that neutron stars can spin at a rate of 600 rotations per second?!” she asked him, and Finn looked down to the cover of the kid’s space mag, raising a judgemental eyebrow. She stuck her tongue out. “I am not ashamed, these are actually filled with information we never even _talk_ about at school.”

“Well, now that I know that neutron stars can spin 500 times per second—"

“600!”

“—I will take that ground breaking information, and go for a walk.”

“Good idea,” Rey yawned, “You need to get out for a bit. I know dad said we didn’t have to wait with him, but I just want to be here, you know?”

“Yeah,” Finn nodded, “You want any more magazines?” Rey just grinned at him, standing up to reveal she was sitting on a whole pile, and he laughed, exiting the room.

“I’ll be back,” he told Rose at reception, “Just going to get some air.”

“Okay!” she waved, smiling after him. As Finn left, she sighed to herself as she went back to reading her paperback.

The writer buttoned up his coat. He thought maybe he could find Poe a gift for when he came home, instead of just welcoming him with his un-showered, gross-looking self upon arrival back in NYC.

He hoped things were going okay.

He hadn’t received a text from Poe today, which was fine, he’s busy, but Finn worried about a lot of things, Poe and Poe’s career being one of them.

Finn walked past the shelves of books in the gift store next to the hospital, and found one he thought Poe might like: _Chicken Soup For The American Idol Lover’s Soul_. That show was his guilty pleasure, and only Finn knew about it. As he was picking up the book though, he saw another one:

 _Way Back Into Love_ , by Snoke Plagueis.

Finn choked in disbelief, quickly getting out of line and going over to the book. He picked it up, completely forgetting about his other gift, and read the foreword.

_It has been my attempt throughout life to share the wisdom I have learned from different people and happenings. My first novel, FN-2187, was a literary success, though not a cinematic one—no surprise to me, really, I told my manager it would never translate well to screen._

“Oh, sure you did, you jackass,” Finn snapped aloud at the book, and a small child and her mom looked over, scandalized. He put a hand up in apology, and went back to reading.

_Alas, my career experienced a low point, from which I have since recovered thanks to the book you are holding now—as FN brought the truth to light, so does this, even more so, to those who wish they could bury it._

“The truth, huh?!” Finn glared at the book accusatorily, as if it would talk right back to him. The cashier looked over boredly.

“You gonna buy that, sir?”

He looked down, scoffed, then began to nod. “Yeah. Yeah, you know what, I am!” He dropped the two books down, and got his wallet out.

“Aw man… you know, we got a shipment of these books here by that Plagueis guy before any other bookstore in the country?” she chuckled with pride, “Yep, first editions. Apparently, they were recalled or something to fix a few grammatical errors, you know how it is… anyway, you hear about what’s happening with those two frauds?” She chuckled some more, “They’re getting what’s coming to them, after the public found out what they did.”

Finn felt his face heat up. “They’re… they’re not frauds.”

“No?” she laughed, “Well, I’d say stealing from a book to write a song is pretty bad. I say, lock ‘em up for it!”

“What?” Finn murmured, paling. People couldn’t possibly be thinking that.

“Well, anyway, that may be a bit extreme… I haven’t read the book—the one by Plagueis, I mean. Not of any real interest to me, or anyone else really, by the sales of the thing… but it’s the principle of the thing. People _love_ to attack celebrities when they get even a thread of what they’re up to.”

“Uh huh.”

“One of those two that stole the name, they got a boyfriend too, a writer… we’ve got a couple of his books kicking around here. They were our bestselling- now, he’s mixed up in all this, and nobody wants to buy his stuff anymore.”

“What’s his name?” Finn whispered.

“Finn something… with that Poe guy. Apparently, Poe and that other younger fellow are gonna be on Conan tomorrow night to try and save their hides. Good luck, s’what I say!”

“Conan tomorrow night.”

“Yeah,” she frowned. “Hey, you look kind of familiar…” 

Finn glanced over her shoulder to see his own novel lining the shelves, and swallowed, looking down.

“I get that a lot. Thanks.”

He took his bag and left, wondering when those books of his would be marked down amidst all this controversy with him involved too.

Finn suddenly felt drained, and shot off a text to Rey.

_Hey… you good looking out for dad tonight? I kinda need a night in the apartment._

Within minutes, he got a reply.

_Do what you need to, F. I’ll text with updates etc_

Finn let out a breath, and walked out into the rainy New York streets umbrella-less, heading back to his place for some much-needed recharging.

Over in Los Angeles, Poe watched the sunset reflect in the Hollywood sign as he laid on his side with a notepad, and missed New York. Los Angeles was a miasma of smog, superficiality, and overall irritating culture. New York had this flow that Poe just identified with, riding the subway and listening to the jazz buskers playing, looking up at the skyscrapers when he felt lost. Most of all though, he missed Finn.

_Laying here_

_So far away and blue_

_Such a long way_

_I pretend I’m holding you_

Poe marvelled at the words he actually got out by himself. Usually, his writing was crap, and he could only manage short phrases… that’s why he needed Finn for the pretty lyrics part.

 _That reminded him_ —he hadn’t called his boyfriend all day!

Poe pulled out his phone, trying to ignore the pounding of the bass next door. This was the second night Kylo had implemented a “jam session”, where he tried to come up with new song ideas by playing the same five notes on a portable keyboard.

_“Snoke Plagueis sucks,_

_Snoke is a dick,_

_What a big asshole—_ " There was some pounding on the wall. “HEY POE! What rhymes with dick?!”

Poe sighed. “Trick!”

_“Throw him off a fucking bridge,_

_That’ll do the trick!”_

The keyboard intensified, leaving Poe wishing that despite his dog, he was on a different floor. BB-8 went and hid under the desk chair, curling up to avoid the sounds with some sleep. Poe thought of texting Jon to ask if he could hear the beautiful music too, but remembered what he had been doing previously.  

The phone rang once, twice. Finn finished flipping the burger patties he had found in the freezer, and answered the phone with a wave of relief.

“Poe.”

“Finn,” Poe grinned, “Babe, how you doing?”

“I’m okay. Just making dinner.”

“You back at the apartment?” Poe asked, pacing the suite.

“Yeah. I had to be home for the night, I don’t know,” Finn muttered, and Poe nodded.

“I feel you. I wish I was home.”

“I just wish I was with you,” Finn replied, “The apartment is so dark and boring without you.”

“Nah, that’s just because you don’t have BB-8 yapping around your ankles right now. He’s the real sunshine around our place,” Poe joked, and Finn considered this.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

Poe sighed. “Being here with Ben is... fun sometimes, but in general, pretty stressful. This is driving me up the walls, not being with you.”

“I know,” Finn told him, sitting down on the piano bench, “I feel the same.”

“How’s your dad?”

“His condition hasn’t changed. Rey’s with him right now. I’m just hanging out... missing you.”

“God," Poe rubbed a hand over his face, "Listen to us, we’re full grown guys who resort to moping around the minute life gets in the way of stuff.”

“Don't care if I'm moping. Still miss you.”

“Well, I’m flattered,” Poe sighed, collapsing back on his bed.

“You should be, 'cause once you’re back, I definitely won’t be thinking of you this much,” Finn said. Poe smiled a little, but his heart ached.

 _Once you’re back._ He didn’t know how long this shit would take to sort out… the first show tomorrow night would be telling of that at least, and they might be able to fix this and put Snoke and Hux in their places, if Kylo was strategic and relatively nice about things on live TV, but the thing was, Poe didn’t know if he could count on that.

“Where are you?” Finn suddenly asked. His voice was low, and something warmed up inside of Poe.

“Hmm… bed. You?” Poe whispered into the receiver, and Finn bit his lip.

“Couch.”

Poe slid his hands down, holding the phone against his ear with his shoulder and unzipping his hoodie.

 _"Let's get it ooon,"_ he started to sing, and Finn groaned.

"STOP!"

" _Let's love babay_ ," Poe grinned, " _Ooooh!"_

"Stoppit, I will hang up, I swear."

“Okay, alright. What are you wearing?”

Finn burst out laughing. “Oh my god, that’s so cliché.”

“Yeah, but it’s hot, isn’t it?” Poe joined in his laughing.

“No!”

“Fine, just… whatever you’re wearing, take it off.”

“One step ahead of you, babe,” Finn murmured, kicking off his jeans. Poe exhaled.

“Are you hard?”

Finn paused. “Yeah.”

“Touch yourself,” Poe told him, biting his lip. He could hear Finn’s soft grunt as he complied, and decided to take his own advice, unzipping himself and reaching over into his duffle bag for lube. Once he had it, he returned his attention to his half hard cock, slowly dragging his fist up and down.

“Are you laying down?” Finn breathed, chest heaving. Poe nodded, then remembered he was on the phone.

“Yeah baby,” he replied. Now that he was finally allowing himself a little personal pleasure, it made him realize just how depraved he was.

“Do you need this, Poe?” Finn gritted out, voice husky. Poe squeezed his cock, shuddering.

“I need it so bad, Finn…”

“How does it feel, huh?” his boyfriend whispered over the phone, his voice sending chills through Poe. Poe hums.

“So good… fuck, want you here with me…”

“I’m there,” Finn says calmly, “I’m touching you, running my hand down... Poe, you’re so hard for me…”

“Ah,” Poe breathed, “God, that’s good…”

In their apartment, Finn bit his lip, stroking himself through his boxers. He needed it bad—it had been a long time since he had felt any sort of sexual pleasure, even with Poe around, and this was absolutely perfect to relieve all the stress he had.

“Tell me how good I am?” Poe whispered, and Finn let out a moan at that, beginning to stroke himself in earnest.

“Fuck, Poe, you’re so good… so good for me, look at you…”

“Oh Finn, I’m such a slut, oh god…” A blush spread over Poe’s cheeks, spreading down to his chest. He shouldn’t be this close to coming already, but…

“You know what I’d do if I was there with you?” Finn asked, clenching his jaw. He had to pace himself, or he was going to come early as well.

“What?” Poe’s breath hitched.

“I’d fuck you so hard the headboards in the hotel room would leave dents. I’d make you scream my name so loud the whole damn hotel would know whose cock you’re taking, I’d have you moaning so much you’d get a call from a Hollywood porn director for an audition.”

“Oh fuck me, you’re really goin’ full tilt, huh?!” Poe blurted, grimacing and tossing his head back. He was so, so close.

“You know that’s how I do,” Finn teased, “Now finish yourself off, babygirl.”

“FUCK!” Poe didn’t care if Ben heard him, or anyone really, as he came hard in his hand, picturing Finn’s orgasm face and naked body through it. Finn couldn’t hold himself back—listening to Poe come was the single hottest thing he had ever heard, and he was not as strong willed as Poe would normally be.

“Ahh, Poe, ohgod—" Finn hissed as he came, rubbing himself. Poe’s eyelids fluttered, and he cleaned his hand off on a tissue nearby, pressing his face into a pillow.

“I think we both really needed that."

"Hell yeah."

"So. Does your dad know you left him at the hospital so you could come jerk off with your boyfriend?” Poe smirked lazily, his body aching pleasantly.

“I’m sure he’d understand,” Finn chuckled sheepishly.

“Ugh… ’m tired,” Poe mumbled, and Finn echoed this with a hum.

“Go to sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow on Conan, babe.”

“Right,” Poe croaked, “Conan. Gotta face that.”

“Hey, at least you're not facing Conan the Barbarian,” Finn joked.

“At this point in my life, I think I’d prefer him,” the singer sighed, rolling over.


	4. Chapter 4

“What do we do? They all look like they’re climbing over to fucking eat us!” Poe whispered. Jon looked over to the rabid fans, reluctant to discover why they were so enthusiastic—to see them redeem themselves, or to see them go down.

“Just smile and wave, my boy. Smile and wave.”

Poe looked at his manager over his sunglasses. “Tell me you didn’t watch the penguin movie Jon.”

“It was all they had on demand last n-!"

“ _Tell me_ , Jon—"

“Oh bugger off, you watched Say Yes To The Dress that time in Burbank after your show—"

“I’m _gay_ , I’m entitled!”

“Piss off you, now in theory, I am at the age where I should have kids, so I in theory _would_ be watching the damn penguin film anyway.”

“Well…” Poe sighed, “I hope you enjoyed it, cause there’s gonna be a lot of clean up for you to do after this show, PR wise.”

“That’s putting it lightly,” Jon nodded, and clapped Poe on the shoulder. “You can do it. You’re a trustworthy person, and all you have to do is make the rest of the world see that again.”

They both took a look at the hungry swarm of zombies waiting by the back gates of the Conan studio lot, and winced.

“You’ve always loved a challenge,” Jon said in his ear, and gave him the thumbs up as he and Ben were escorted backstage with the guards. He watched for a second, and when they were gone, he turned to Kylo’s manager, Moff.

“Hey,” he pulled out a joint he had bought from some sketchy guy hanging around the Walk of Fame Hostel, “Do you party, Mr. Tarkin?”

Moff glared at him. “No I do not.”

Jon nodded, clearing his throat awkwardly and slowly putting the joint back in his pocket. 

“You ready?” Ben asked inside, inspecting himself in a mirror as they paused to wait. Poe looked around him at all the wires and cameras. He had been micced hundreds of times before for concerts, but never this extensively, and… well…

“This is my first time doing an interview,” Poe hissed.

“What?” Ben turned, rolling up the cuffs on his leather jacket. He looked good, in keeping with how he usually looked.

“I’ve never had any reason to be interviewed like this before,” Poe explained, “I mean, I’ve done magazine spreads and radio shows before, but not… fuck, Conan O’Brien.”

“You’ll be fine.”

Poe looked up at him. “Yeah?”

“Yes! You’re a charismatic guy. Not as charismatic as I am, but—"

“Well, debateable,” Poe murmured, slicking back his hair.

“You’re... debatable,” Ben shot back with a scowl. Poe tried not to look too irritated as the hands manhandled him into the gear, dragging the wire up his shirt and taping it to his collarbone, threading it through to his lapel, clamping it—

“Ow,” Poe whispered, and the hand realized he had clamped Poe’s skin with the microphone.

“Shit, sorry man,” he whispered back, eyes wide, “I didn’t mean to, oh god, don’t get me fired, shit, I gotta pay my way through film school, man—"

“Hey hey, it’s fine,” Poe put a hand up with a small smile, “A little pain makes things exciting.” He winked, and the stagehand blushed, darting back to get Ben ready. The pop star shook his luscious hair out, pursed his lips, and put his game face on, as Poe attempted to do the same.

He could do this. He could do this. Finn was watching. A lot of people were watching. Shit.

Conan wrapped up his opening monologue, and called them out.

“Our next two guests come at a somewhat controversial hour. The first of the two is a folk singer some of you may know from the hit album “Resistance” and if you’re a die-hard fan of this guy, you’ll catch his sensitive side with “Pilot Be Free”, please welcome Poe Dameron everybody!”

The “applause” signs were held up in the studio, so the studio audience had to cheer, but a couple of people shouted slurs that would later be edited out. Poe waved, and though a lot of people in the audience were currently pissed at him, nobody could deny that he had more charm in his little finger than the entire audience put together did.

“Hey guys,” he beamed, and one woman in the front crossed her legs with an extremely suggestive smile on her face. Poe winked at her, and she just about fainted into her boyfriend, who wasn’t as happy about this as she was.

Meanwhile, in New York, Finn and Rey had turned on the small hanging TV in the hospital room to see the show. Luke was propped up, as he was set on watching this as well.

Conan sat forward at his desk. “Now Poe, I’ve gotta ask, where did you parents come up with your name?”

Offended, Finn balked at the screen. “It’s a damn good name!”

“He didn’t insult him yet, hush,” Rey muttered.

“Um...” Poe laughed, “As my manager, _Qui Gon Ginn_ , likes to put his own situation, ‘eccentric parents and too much LSD.’” Finn watched him, knowing that wasn’t true, but he understood what lies you had to tell for entertainment purposes. Jon watched from the monitors backstage.

"The jokes are always at my expense," he whispered to nobody.

 “Alright, what have you been working on lately, Poe?” the redheaded host asked, laughing, and Poe tilted his head.

“Uh, my latest album that I’m working on with my partner, Finn Skywalker, is in the works. I don’t wanna spoil anything, so I won’t talk about it too much, but it’s gonna be from the heart, this one.”

“Is that one, uh,” Conan grinned, “Is that one gonna be plagiarized too?” The audience laughed, and Poe was caught off guard as he tried to fight the sick feeling in his stomach. 

“THAT GINGER DOUCHEBAG CAN’T DO THAT!” Finn shouted, "And what's with his stupid hair?! Poe's hair is _so_ much better!" Rey sat him down as a male nurse named Temmins came in.

“Sir, I have to ask you to keep it down. There’s an elderly patient next door who we just administered sleeping medication to,” he reprimanded, and Finn crossed his arms.

On screen, Conan put a hand up when Poe couldn’t respond to the joke. “Hey, I’m not judging. You’ll have plenty of time to discuss that in a bit… first, let’s bring out our second guest.” Poe let out a silent breath of relief. “You know him as an international sensation, constantly topping charts with hits like “Screw You”, “Stabbed Through The Heart”, “The Pull To The Light,” and most recently “First Order”, please welcome mega pop star Kylo!”

The crowd went wild, save for that select few who had obviously joined the audience just to heckle them.

“Kylo, how have things been since your break up?” Conan asked, and Poe had to think for a second.

_Oh, right. When you’re super famous, they ask you about your personal life first._

“Oh fine, fine yes,” Ben nodded, “Even though Jessika was a lecherous, deceitful bitch in the end, we had some great sex, and she got me off drugs, so it wasn’t an all around shitty experience.”

Poe rubbed his temples, already empathizing with the editing team.

“Right…” Conan looked at the camera with a warning glance, and they switched the teleprompter to cancel the rest of the questions he was planning to ask the pop star. “So a lot of people are speculating that you two are working together again, and that’s why you’re here. Is it?”

“Well, there might be something on the—" Poe started to appease,  but Ben cut in.

“No, we’re here to dispel the disgusting rumour that Snake Plagueis started. Can we make _that_ into a hashtag, huh?! Snake Plagueis, Snake Plagueis!” he started to chant, and a couple of enthusiastic teen girls in the back chanted it with him.

“Has a… nice ring to it?” Poe laughed sheepishly, trying to overlook the glares of the rest of the audience. Conan blinked.

“Okay, right to the point then. Did you two honestly _never_ plagiarise from Snoke Plagueis, prompting the globally trending hashtag #waybackintolies?” Poe felt a little irked by this guy, his stupidly coiffed hair, and his tonal implications, but he didn’t want to start another story in the media-- "Poe Dameron Pounds The Final Nail On His Coffin By Sassing Talk Show Host".

“Never,” Ben snapped, and Poe held up a hand.

“Look… we can understand that Snoke felt a little slighted when his first book didn’t work out so well—"

“Actually, it was a bestseller, it was only the movie that didn’t,” Conan corrected, and Poe felt his blood reach a boiling point.

“Whose side are you on here?” he asked, and a hush fell over the studio. Conan studied him, then gestured silently for him to continue, so Poe did. “His first book was successful, but it was full of a lot of things that he called truths that weren’t, in fact, that. The fact of the matter was, Finn and I—"

“Finn Skywalker, this is your boyfriend,” Conan clarified, "Author of Stormy Seas and Other Metaphors?"

“Yes, Finn Skywalker,” Poe nodded proudly, “If you can get it, read his book by the way, it's amazing. Anyway, he and I had dealt with Snoke regarding something else, and it didn’t go so well, so he obviously felt as if he needed to get revenge of some kind.”

“What was that something else?” Conan pressed, and Finn’s heart skipped a beat as he watched. Poe wouldn’t say anything… would he?

Poe looked out at the crowd, and his brain seemed to short circuit. _That could be a diversion, couldn't it? Finn would understand, wouldn't he?_

“FN-2187 was about Finn,” he blurted, and immediately knew that was the wrong thing to say. Finn stood up in the hospital room, and Rey’s eyes widened. Even Luke grimaced. “Shit…" Poe sighed, "I mean—it was supposed to be, but all of it was Snoke lying, of course, because he was jealous of Finn’s work!” Poe tried to backtrack, but it wasn’t as if the public would buy that now.

“Alright look, you both seem like nice guys,” the host admitted, staring mostly at Poe, “But do you have _any_ tangible proof whatsoever you can show the general public to make them believe you? I mean, otherwise, your careers aren’t looking so good.”

Poe looked down. “We’ve only got our word.”

“And we’re good with words,” Ben spoke up, “We do a lot of publicity. At least I do."

Poe closed his eyes. They were fucked; more importantly, _he_ was fucked.

* * *

"It's all quite perfect, really," Hux smiled. "Did you see Conan O’Brien last night?" These little meet-ups were inconvenient, but necessary to ensure things were running smoothly.

"Oh, I wouldn't have missed it for the world," the bald man chuckled, "They made fools of themselves."

"That little slip up Dameron made will cost him greatly," another smirk from Hux, "He tried to backtrack and pin it on you, but the public will likely never fall for that."

"Likely not," Snoke replied, "Nor will their little plan to talk their way out of this work. I've got them right where I want them."

"Mmm... I got your book, by the way."

"Oh yes? Is it to your liking?" Snoke asked.

"Yes, but... there are some aesthetic errors in the opening paragraph. Nothing, really, just indents and such... to mention."

Snoke frowned. "You did have your contact re-publish the _second_ edition of my book, didn't you? Not the first?" For a moment, he seemed very worried.

"Yes, I made sure of it," Hux nodded, averting his eyes. He wasn’t about to admit to his mistake of letting a few first editions out before having them republished… not when he was sure it wouldn’t make a bit of difference. And maybe… just maybe… if anything were to come of it, Ben’s career wouldn’t be completely obliterated. Not that Hux hoped for such a thing. Of course not. He positively hated him.

Didn’t he?

"Then there is nothing to worry about," Snoke sighed, "A few errors will do us no harm."

"Would you guys shut up, and let Jimmy Fallon do the talking?" the tourist behind Snoke and Hux grumbled, gesturing to the screens in front of them on the Universal Studio Tours bus, and Snoke glared.

"Why did we have to meet at here?" he hissed.

"Because I like Despicable Me," Hux sniffed, "It's relatable."

Snoke tightened a fist, looking to his right to see Norman Bates carrying a body across the parking lot and picturing Finn Skywalker.

* * *

"How could you say that?!"

"Babe, I'm so sorry," Poe sighed, "I'm so, so sorry, it just came out, and... it was being taped, and I thought for a second that it would distract from the whole plagiarism thing--"

"So you used the thing that's given me crippling anxiety and self-esteem issues to hurl at the general public to save your career?!"

"Finn, I'm not the only one being attacked here. Snoke's after you too!"

"He's been after me my whole life, Poe, I just thought we'd put the last time to bed."

"Look, it was a mistake, okay? And honestly, you're doing that stubborn thing again."

" _What_ stubborn thing?!"

"The thing that got us into that mess last time!"

"Oh, you mean your reluctance to stand up for yourself?"

"Buddy, I'm a lot of things, but a pushover ain't one of 'em."

"Okay, so you're calling me buddy now, huh?" Finn nodded, "We're going there?"

"Finn, don't be like that," Poe growled.

"Like what, Poe? Angry that you told the entire world and all your fans that I cheated my way through school so I could get that asshole fired?!"

"You know it's not true, so do I."

"But they don't!" Finn scoffed, "And no matter what we tell each other, yes, their opinions do matter in our careers, Poe, they matter a whole hell of a lot!"

"Well..." Poe huffed, "I said I was sorry."

"You can't take back what you said."

"At _least_ I'm not saying I agree with him."

"No, we went through that two years ago, we don't need to do it again."

"That's not fair, come on! You're unearthing shit you don't need to just 'cause you're pissed at me, now I say we cool off for a while, and check in with each other in a bit, okay?"

"Don't act like I need to cool off. You did this."

"And I apologized! Fuck, can you hold a grudge!"

"My livelihood is affected by this, you know!"

"Oh shit, well let me help you nail yourself to that cross, Finn--"

"You know, you're such a dick sometimes."

"Well, so are you!"  Poe's battery suddenly alerted him that his phone was dying, and it buzzed off, effectively ending that conversation as abruptly as it started. "Fuck," he muttered, tossing it to the bed and thumping his head against the terrace door.

Finn stared at his phone in disbelief. Poe just hung up on him! That doesn't seem like something he would just do... then again, when things get heated, Poe does a lot that he ends up regretting. Finn closed his eyes, sucking in a breath, and pushed the door to the hospital room back open.

"Hey Pea-"

"I feel like if I'm in this room one more god damn hour I'm gonna explode!" Finn cut Rey off, and she stared at him.

"Uhhh... back up, Dad can't help this. In case you don't remember, he had a heart attack. Now keep it down, or you'll wake him up." She was staring at him like he had three heads; Finn never had outbursts like this. 

"Yeah, a heart attack, I know," Finn nodded, "Well hearts are stupid. Okay? They suck. Who needs hearts anyway?!"

"Humans who breathe," Rey deadpanned, and Finn got up again, shaking his head.

"God, it's been so long, how much longer are they gonna keep him here?!"

"Until they're sure he's stable, he could still relapse at any minute, Finn, his blood pressure is dangerously high, did they not make that clear to you?!" Finn went to the door.

"Look, I've gotta--"

"Sit down."

"What do you mean sit down, I said I'm--"

"Finn, sit down!"

Finn stopped, looking back at Rey. She had those eyes, those eyes that said she would rip out your spleen if you didn't do as she said. So he did.

"What?" he mumbled petulantly.

"Stop being such a baby, and sit up."

"Who are you, mom?”

Rey's jaw clenched. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but you are testing me. As your older sister--"

"Older by three weeks."

"Still older, I implore you, tell me what in hell is making you such a pile of indigestible fuck right now!"

Finn raised his eyebrows, and rested his head back against the wall. "I am fucking angry."

"I know," Rey nodded, "I understand. What makes you think you can take that out on me?"

Finn looked down, a moment of sobriety passing over him. "Rey, I'm sorry."

"I know," she repeated. "I mean it's not... a huge offence to be a complete and total douchecanoe to your sister. I'm just making a deal of it because you were annoying me."

Finn smirked. "Thanks."

"I gotcha," she grinned, and rested her head on his shoulder. "Fro yo?"

"Fro yo," Finn confirmed. Rey looked up expectantly, and he frowned. "What, I gotta get it?!"

"You were already on your way out!" Rey folded her arms, and Finn heaved himself up. Not ten minutes later, he was back from the cafeteria with two bowls of soft serve frozen yogurt—not as good as peanut butter flavour, but it was something. They sat down on the floor.

"So... about the boyf," Rey cringed, pulling her legs into a criss cross. Finn sighed.

"We're having another fight."

"That much is evident."

"He's being... him!"

"And you're being you, that's typically how fights work," Rey nodded.

"Shut up," Finn rolled his eyes, "Poe just doesn't seem to take it seriously!"

"Oh," Rey set her bowl down, "I'm sure he does. He just comes off as careless, sometimes."

"Reckless."

"Eh, both," Rey points her spoon, and Finn chuckles.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Whenever you two fight, it's always the same. You don't communicate like proper adults, and I end up dealing with it."

"Poe's musical talents dealt with it last time, remember?" Finn grumbled.

"Yes, but I still had to deal with your blubber," she said.

Finn leaned back against the wall. "The more I think about it, the more I feel bad. I am pretty stubborn.” He exhaled, groaning. “It feels like I’m just fighting for the sake of fighting.”

"Sage advice, peanut? Never take too much of the blame. Share it equally, as you would a key lime pie."

"Or in your case, eat the whole damn pie yourself," Finn scoffed, and looked at his sister. "Since when did you get so wise?"

"Since becoming an almost-astronaut and learning a lot of worldly stuff along the way," Rey smiled.

"About key-lime pies?”

“I read that online,” she muttered, “School isn’t that academic.”

“Speaking of school-- how is it?”

Rey smiled. “It’s the best, Finnie. It’s everything I dreamed it would be… you know that feeling you get when you just know you’re doing the right thing with your life, and you’re excited as hell for what’s coming?”

Finn smiled with her. “Sort of. See, I know half of my life. I know who I want to be with… I just don’t know for sure this is what I want to do.”

“What, writing?” Rey asked.

“Yeah. I wrote a romance novel and all—"

“Romance adventure.”

“So you did read it! Anyway, it was awesome, I had so much fun with it, but that feeling you described, I’m just... not getting it. I want to write and share my ideas, but... in a different way?” He sighed.

“That’s called figuring your shit out,” Rey nodded, “Takes time. Some people are lucky. Some people take their whole lives to figure it out—remember Luke talking about Grandpa Owen?”

“Yeah,” Finn laughed, “He moved all over the place with Grandmamma Beru trying to find a good place to start his business. Then he just realized he wanted to be a farmer.”

“He moved to Canada,” Rey mused.

“Saskatchewan,” Finn frowned, imagining what it would be like to live in the prairies. He could probably stand it, as long as he had his boyfriend with him to live out his days… of course, Poe would never go for it. He hates the country.

Thinking of him got Finn feeling bad again.

“Dad’s been so supportive through school. I keep getting checks that I tell him to keep for himself, but whenever I try sending it back, he reroutes it and pretends he’s terminated his address.” Rey snorted. “Oh, but we have so many physical exams,” she went on, “It’s like high school gym class, 14 hours a day, since the term I’m in right now is more practical stuff, fall term is astronomy and physics and everything like that.”

“You loved high school gym,” Finn scoffed, “People feared you, after you beat up that twelfth grader with a hockey stick.”

“People still fear me, even without the hockey stick,” Rey grinned, “Especially on ropes. We have to do rope training, where we see how fast we can climb, and I kid you not, I have not been beaten yet.”

“Really?” Finn grinned. Honestly, he didn’t doubt it.

“Yep, but there’s this incredibly misogynistic instructor that practically has a fit whenever I beat the male students. I think I’m going to drive him into an early grave once I show him how good I am with quantum mechanics.” 

Finn decked his arm around her, hugging his sister. “I’m proud of you.”

“Yeah?” she smiled, “I’m pretty proud of you too.” Finn let her go, tapping an imaginary watch.

“So, uh, when's liftoff then? I'm counting the days until you buzz off to space."

"Oh, I know you are," she retorted, “I’ve still got another three terms. At least when I go, _Poe’ll_ miss me. BB-8 too!” Finn's smile faded.

"Rey… I should call him."

"You really should. There's no way you're both going to get through any of this muck if you're stressing about each other too, wondering who's going to say sorry first and all that." Luke coughed a few times, and wheezed softly. Rey stood, looking over at their father.

"I'll call the nurse. Anyway, be the bigger person here."

"I might as well just do it," Finn nodded, pulling out his phone. Just then, the monitor began to beep, and a single, monotone sound filled the air.

Luke was flat lining.

Temmins Wexely suddenly pushed in with two doctors, and they ushered a very disoriented Finn and Rey out of the room. "If the defibrillation works, they're going to need to take him in for surgery, if they can't find the source of the complication," the nurse told them hurriedly.

"Can we get the odds?" Finn asked, peering over the guy's shoulder frantically.

"First we need to take this one step at a time," Wexely put his hands up for patience, and returned to the hospital room.

Finn watched the door, watched the flurry of turquoise coats inside. One thing was certain: Poe could not find out about this right now.


	5. Chapter 5

_“FN-2187 WAS ABOUT FINN”_ the tabloid in the hotel convenience store read. Poe picked up a copy, and sighed, plunking down at a table.

_‘Pop singer Kylo had this to say: We’re good with words!” Evidently, they are not as smooth as they think they are._

_‘[Finn] and I had dealt with Snoke,” folk-singer Porg Dameron told host Conan O’Brien Friday night.’_

“Porg?” Poe whined, and got his phone out, dialling a number. “Jon! Are you seein’ this?!”

“Is this about the Porg?”

“Yes it is about the Porg!” Poe scowled, “Porgs are a damn island mammal in New Zealand, I am a not a Porg! That is not my name!”

“US Weekly would disagree,” Jon replied, and Poe rubbed his forehead.

“Can you make some calls?”

“I’ve been on it all morning,” Jon told him gently, and Poe sighed.

"Sorry." He ended the call, and Ben approached with a coffee.

“Morning, Porg.”

“You read it too?” Poe nodded.

“I did, and it’s insulting,” Ben sat down across from him, “I mean, they totally took what I said out of context!”

“Right,” Poe said, “Well, the other talk show hosts in the area have caught wind. We’ve got Corden tonight, Ellen tomorrow morning, Bill Maher midday, Chelsea Lately tomorrow afternoon—“

“I banged her once, we might have a little luck there,” Ben interjected.

“O…kay, fine. We can’t seem to get Jimmy Kimmel, he’s all booked up with Jason Momoa and Emily Blunt.”

Ben grunted in response, took a sip of his coffee, and made a face, going back to concessions. “Excuse me, this is the worst cup of coffee I have ever tasted.”

“Are you…” the woman’s eyes widened, “Are you Kylo?!”

“Aren’t hotel employees not supposed to freak out over celebrity guests?” Ben snapped, looking at her nametag, “Becky?!”

“Uhhh,” Poe got up to avoid escalation, “This isn’t Kylo. This is Kylo’s best friend’s sister’s roommate.” As Becky was doing the math as to what that could make him, the two slipped away. Poe opened the tabloid back up to his spot, and kept reading. “Ben, listen to this— _‘US Weekly celebrity expert Lando Calarissian reads into this: ‘Mr. Dameron has admitted to “dealing” with Snoke in the past_.” Ben snatched the paper.

“ _’This could imply an altercation, which could have prompted the plagiarism as not a display of negligence, but of revenge._ ’”

“Aw, come on!” Poe blurted.

“Lando, I know him,” Ben said.

“You do?!”

“Yeah, he’s a friend of my dad’s. No wonder he’s trashing us.”

“Can you call in a few favours?” Poe pressed.

“No,” Ben said simply, “That would entail speaking to my father.”

“Alright then, let’s just get back to our rooms and get ready,” Poe shook his head, “I’ve got articles left right and centre about the dumb shit I said, and now, my boyfriend won’t even talk to me.”

“Let me speak with Finn, I’m sure he’d talk to me.”

“I appreciate it, but that’s not really a step in the right direction, buddy.”

They went back upstairs.

Corden joked his way through everything Poe or Ben had Jon and Moff prepare for them. It didn’t work out well.

Ellen was a bust. While she was at least attentive to what they had to say, the proof thing was still… well, a valid thing.

Maher roasted them.

Chelsea seemed to have the exact same problem with Ben that Hux did—but she did flirt with Poe a little, so things were only half of a trainwreck.

Ultimately, the factor of this publicity stunt to get their careers back on track was road blocked by one thing: there was no way they could viably say they didn’t copy Snoke’s ideas when the publication date was August 5th, 2014, three months before they had started coming up with their song.

Poe felt hopeless.

After dropping off BB-8 with Jon again, he had been at the bar, finishing off his whiskey. He couldn't be around the dog right now-- BB may be his best buddy, but he reminded him of Finn. Everything reminded him of Finn, and it was driving him up the walls that his boyfriend was still mad.

Poe had had three beers prior to that, and was feeling disoriented. He wasn’t big on drinking, and never really got “drunk”… this was fairly new for him. Currently, he was wandering down the dodgy end of the walk of fame at night, wondering if he would’ve seen Kylo’s name on one of these ever… or even his own.

His phone rang, and he answered impulsively.

“Porg Dameron, at your service.”

“…Poe?”

Poe stopped for a second, then kept walking. “Yeah?” It was Finn.

“I just called to…” Poe stared down at the walk, noticing a tattered copy of a People tabloid that had virtually the same heading as the US Weekly one had. All about him and his failure… which he presumed Finn was calling about now.

“You know what, save it,” Poe cut in, “I don’t wanna hear it anymore, okay? I know you’re mad at me, the whole rest of the damn world is, so I don’t need to hear it.” His head was spinning-- he attempted to steady himself, but just ended up stumbling over his feet and banging into a garbage can.

“No, Poe--! Are you drunk?”

“I don’t wanna hear it, Finn!” Poe nearly broke down, leaning against the wall with a groan, “Shit, I _know_ what I did!" His filter wasn't working; the words were just coming. "I ruined my career, I ruined your career, and I can’t undo it!” He shook his head. “There’s no way outta this. Snoke’s got us in a chokehold, we can’t find any loopholes here. I’m ready to say fuck it, man.” Finn was silent for a second. He was calling to apologize, but what he was hearing is something Poe couldn’t do… not when he had gotten this far.

“Poe,” he started calmly, “You can’t do that.” Suddenly, Rey waved for him to come over. There was news about Luke. “Poe, I… I’m sorry, I have to go… lemme call you back, we _have_ to talk.”

Poe ran a hand through his hair. “Oh. Oh, you have to go, yeah. You’re doing a great job being a supportive boyfriend. You’re supposed to be pissed _with_ me! You’re supposed to say fuck it _with_ me! You don’t care!”

Finn felt anger flare up inside of him again as he kept his phone to his ear. “What?!”

“You don’t care! You’re pissed at me, and you don’t care.”

“Hell yeah I’m pissed at you, you're saying I don't care!”

“See, you never get over shit!”

“Okay, you wanna talk about supportive boyfriends?” Finn hissed into the phone, “I… I wasn’t going to tell you until I figured out how to put this, and to keep you from worrying about this on top of everything. But there’s a very good chance my father is going to die tonight. He stopped breathing two days ago, and they’ve got him in for surgery.”

There was a long pause, so long Finn thought Poe had hung up. Then he spoke. “I... I’m sorry.”

Finn closed his eyes. He had heard those words too many times in the past week, mostly from himself, and he hated hearing them.

“Finn, I’m so sorry,” Poe told him again, voice cracking. He started to cry, sliding down the wall he was leaning against and just sitting on the sidewalk. Finn’s heart broke listening to him, so far away, unable to hold him.

“It’s okay,” Finn whispered, his own eyes gathering tears, “It’s gonna be okay. It’s all gonna be okay.” It was as if a damn burst; tears began to roll down his own cheeks, repeating the words as if to himself as well. “I don’t want to lose him, Poe. I’m so scared. I’m so, so scared, and I know you’re scared, and everything is just…” He shook his head.

“Dads are important.”

Finn sniffled. “What?”

“Dads…” Poe mumbled in between stifled sobs, “Are important. Like, my dad. He was important to me. Like, actually important. I know I pretend I don’t care that he stopped talking to me, but he’s the reason I started singing. Pilot Be Free was just me… fucking coping, with how my dad treated me for being gay.”

Finn wiped his eyes. He should be getting back to Rey and Luke, but... “How old were you?”

“17. I started writing my songs then, and made them in my twenties…” He trailed off. “God dammit, Luke better be okay.”

“He’s gonna be okay,” Finn said.

“He’s gonna be okay,” Poe echoed, tracing his mother's chain. Those four words echoed again in his mind, the only thing Poe could hear in the quiet part of Hollywood. Fresh tears came down. “I love you.”

Finn smiled for the first time in two days. “I know.”

They remained on the phone, Finn standing by the sterile water fountain and Poe sitting on Billy Bob Thornton’s dirty, gum-covered star.

* * *

 

Ben paced beside the hot tub.

“Alright, we need to strategize here-- we have to find Snoke’s weakness.”

“Haven’t we been trying to do that for the past week?” Poe’s head hurt from the mother of all hangovers.  

“We weren’t thinking about it right, he obviously wrote it after our song…” Poe had his legs in the steamy water, swishing them around, and Ben studied him. “What’s that around your neck? You never struck me as a man who wears rapper bling.”

Poe looked down, ignoring the pain radiating from his skull in favour of a wry laugh. “This is my mother’s chain, dude. She gave it to me before she died. I haven’t taken it out for years, but recently… I don’t know, I just wanted to wear it today, feel like she’s here with me.” The truth was, when he got back last night, he had put it around his neck, and felt as if he had someone there with him again… like he wasn’t so alone.

“That’s nice,” Ben nodded, and got an unusual look in his eyes. “My mother used to give me stuff.” He didn’t elaborate, and Poe knew not to ask.

 Suddenly, something dawned on Ben, sending him into a frenzy. “Poe! He must have had someone change the publication date!”

“What?"

"The date! Oh my god, he changed the publication date!"

"...How is that even possible?!” Poe asked, “It’s printed in _billions_ of different places all over the world, how could they just recall all the first editions like it’s nothing?”

“I guess they… I don’t know, talked to somebody in the business before it was internationally distributed. I’ve had shit like that done for me… not like this, but if you pull the right strings in the right places, you can pull something like this off. Hux knew a guy, uh… DJ something, I think he said, that worked in the book business… um, I think it was Code something publishing. He mentioned it once, when I was pretending to care about his life. Codebreaker publishing, maybe.”

“DJ?” Poe said slowly. “You sure you’re not thinking of a disc jockey you hired for a concert? And, may have slept with?”

“No,” Ben retorted, “I would have remembered him if his name was _DJ_.”

“Do you think this guy would do a lot for money?”

“I don’t know, I never met the fuckwit,” Ben scowled. Then the two men got the same idea at the same time. The pop star got out of the tub, snatching his phone. “Moff?! Yeah, get off your ass and do something, I need you to get the number of Codebreaker Publishing, then make an appointment for us.” He hung up. “Poe, get some black coffee and wake the fuck up.”

About an hour and a half later, Moff had dug up the number and address Ben had asked for, and Poe had texted Jon about it, telling him to come along for publicity reasons. They may be onto something here.

“Are you bringing Moff?”

“No, he’s a creepy old man and I don’t like him,” Ben replied candidly.  “Have you heard back from your manager?”

“No, he hasn’t texted back yet,” Poe muttered, checking his phone. There was an “ _I love you_ ” from Finn, an update from the boarders on how BB-8 was doing (which made Poe sad—he missed his little buddy).

“Do you know where he is?”

“Well, he should be in his room.”

They walked down to the end of the hall, where they found a sock on the door, and a note.

_“The preverbial sock. There is no one in this room having sex, but I am currently on a date. Yes, a date. Don’t bother me for two hours, Poe. Two hours, that’s all I ask. Please.”_

Poe looked at Ben, then flipped the note over.

_“But if you really need me, I’ll be at The Hungry Cat, 1535 Vine Street. Look for purple hair.”_

They rushed out of the hotel lobby, hailed a cab, and found the restaurant.

“Aren’t you supposed to have Phasma with you?” Poe asked.

“I texted her, told her to go to the hotel spa. If she came along, everyone would know who we are, and we need to stay in stealth mode right now.”

“Reservations?” the smiling hostess asked, and Ben glared at her.

“You actually think I’m gonna make a reservation here? There’s a line half a mile out the door!” He pushed past her, and Poe gave her an apologetic look.

“He really has to go to the bathroom.” He followed the taller man in, and looked around. “Purple hair, purple hair, purple hair…” Poe mused, wondering if Jon had dyed his hair. Then, he saw it—it was hard to miss.

“There,” Ben pointed, and they started to make their way across the restaurant. The only thing they could do was hope the date Jon had with him wouldn’t recognize them.

“This is lovely kampachi,” Jon said, looking up at Amilyn, “Just lovely.”

“Mmm, and the gem lettuce,” she smiled back, “Amazing. Best I’ve ever had.”

“Really? You eat a lot of it?”

“Oh yeah, I love gem lettuce.”

She took the hot chilis from the side of the table, and poured about five onto her salad, grinning.

“Ooh,” Jon smirked, “Wild child.”

“I’m adventurous,” she replied, smirking.

“So what’s an adventurous woman like you doing working at a hotel, taking care of other people’s adventures?”

Amilyn considered this. “Well, I am the manager. I like to be in control.”

“Dear god,” Jon murmured, and downed the rest of his white wine.

“You never told me what you do,” she said.  

Just then, the two musicians approached the table. “Uncle Jon!”

“Uncle who?” Jon looked up from his wine, and sighed when he saw Poe. “Ah. I should have known you’d come here.”

“Who’s this?” Amilyn asked, slipping back into her usual personality that surfaced when she wasn’t around Jon. Poe turned to her as they stood up.

“I’m…. uh…. Oscar Jinn! Jon’s nephew.”

“My nephew,” Jon repeated slowly, and turned to Amilyn. “That’s right.”

“And this is….” Poe gestured to Ben, frowning. They couldn’t pass as brothers, so—

“I’m his boyfriend, Benjamin Schnitzel,” Ben smiled sweetly, shaking her hand.

“Well,” Poe cocked his head, making a face, “That’s… we broke up.”

“Fine, I’m his ex-boyfriend.”

_“Well why would be hanging out together if you were my ex-boyfriend, Benjamin?”_

_“What am I then, your fucking husband?!”_

“Boys!” Jon interrupted in time, laughing, “This is Amilyn Holdo, my, eh… my date.”

Poe opened his arms for a hug, but she just looked him up and down. “Pleased to meet you,” she said slowly, taking his hand to shake. Poe immediately got cold vibes from her— sure, he probably shouldn’t have gone in for the hug yet, but she could have at least smiled at him.

“Right,” he nodded, clearing his throat.

 “I only met Jon a few days ago, but it’s great to be meeting some of his family so soon,” Amilyn continued, looking back to Jon.

“Not too soon I hope?” Jon cringed, and Poe frowned.

“Look, sorry Amelia—“

“Amilyn.”

“--Laurilynn, but we’ve gotta steal your man for a second,” Poe said, "Uncle Jon, did you feed BB-8?"

"I left him an entire bowl for the day, why?"

"Because..." Poe tried to raise his eyebrows and signal they needed to go with some head jerking, but Amilyn turned around, so Poe winced and held his neck in fake injury. "Mmm, we really need to go." Jon looked conflicted, staring back at Amilyn.

“Unless…”

“Unless… what?” Poe asked slowly.

“You could… come,” Jon offered weakly, and Amilyn looked down.

“Oh, that’s not possible, I’ve got work and stuff—"

"Yeah, she's got work and stuff," Poe nodded along.

“Hey,” Jon raised his eyebrows, “It might be an adventure.” Her face softened, and she bit her lip.

“Oh... okay. I’d love to.”

Poe and Ben tried not to groan, and after leaving some money, they exited the restaurant.

 “Do you follow celebrity news?” Ben asked Amilyn suspiciously.

“I work in Hollywood,” she deadpanned, shaking her head, “I hate celebrity news, I never let it affect my work who I see and don’t see. So no, I try not to keep up.”

“Oh thank god,” Jon breathed, and Poe spoke.

“Okay. I’m just gonna say it then, even with her here,” he sighed, “Ben knows the guy who reprinted the novel.”

“Might have,” Ben added.

“Shit in a bucket, alright, what are we doing about this?” Jon rubbed his hands together, “Going to see the fellow, I hope.”

“You bet we are,” Poe confirmed, and Amilyn followed along behind as they raced down the street to find the address.

“Are you a spy?” she hissed to Jon, clinging onto his shoulder, and he nodded.

“Yes. Yes I am.”

They decided to call a cab, and showed the address to the driver. They entered the wealthy area of Hollywood (even wealthier than the area they had previously been in), and stopped at a high rise in the city, complete with a large sign declaring who owned it. 

“Alright, don’t wait up,” Poe told the driver, and Ben paid him as they all got out.

“This is going to take diplomacy,” Jon said, and Poe nodded.

“Yeah. This guy looks like a real hot shot.”

“Are we going in to kill him?” Amilyn whispered excitedly.

“No, we are not gonna _kill_ anyone,” Poe rolled his eyes.

“I don’t like your tone,” Amilyn shot back, and Poe stared at her incredulously.

“Oh, you mean the tone that tells you I really don’t like you? That tone?”

“Yes, that one, I am a perfectly pleasant person, and you’re not giving me a chance.”

“You refused my hug! My hugs are amazing, ask my boyfriend!”

“You mean Benjamin?”

“No, not that one,” Poe seethed.

“Hi, hello!” Jon interjected, shaking his head, “Let’s just not. Can we not?” Poe and Amilyn glared at each other, then turned away.  They all entered, and took the elevator up to the fourteenth floor, where DJ’s office was. They were not expecting what they found—walls covered in lopsided print posters of published novels and magazines,

“Welcome,” the man said, feet up on the desk and twiddling a pencil between his grimy fingers, “What do you c-c-come for?” He almost sounded like a snake.

“We made an appointment under Tarkin?” Ben said, “My manager’s name.”

“Ah yes,” the man eyed them, “I s-s-spoke with him. This must have been a long journey for you, from the c-c-city that never sleeps.”

"We've been here for a while. We're only over at the Roosevelt," Ben said. 

Poe cut in. "This is my manager Jon Jinn with his, uh… his date, Miss Holdo.”

“Agent Holdo," she said, lifting her chin and giggling with Jon, and Poe sighed.

"We're Poe Dameron and Ben Solo, the latter otherwise known as Kylo."

"Oscar and Benjamin, huh?” Amilyn raised an eyebrow. Jon glanced at her, silently promising an explanation.

“Alright, now we’re gonna do this quick, DJ,” Poe spoke, sitting down across from him. “You’re gonna give us the information we need—I think you know what I’m referring to.”

The man chuckled for a good long while, before finally opening his eyes. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re t-t-talking about, Mr. Dameron.”

“Oh, I think you do, buddy,” Poe bit, and Jon put a hand on his shoulder.

“Let me handle this.” He walked up to DJ, and waved a hand in front of his face. “You will give us the information we need.”

“As many times as you try that, it's never gonna work,” Poe muttered, and Jon stepped back.

“You changed the publication dates,” Ben said, and DJ leaned back in his chair.

“I think this little c-c-conversation is done he—" As he reached for the phone to contact reception though, Ben picked it up and hurled it at the wall, shattering it in a bunch of little pieces.

“Bill me!” he shouted, and DJ turned slowly back to Poe.

“Very well. You have my at-t-tention. Would you like anything? Drinks? Cigars?”

Ben snatched a cigarette from a bowl on his desk, flicking it with his long fingers. “I thought they only had these in the fifties.”

“He looks like a vintage man,” Jon whispered.

Poe sat forward. “Alright. We know you worked with Hux, and therefore, are working for Snoke. You know who we are, and you know we’re being publicly accused of plagiarism by Snoke regarding the book that you republished.”

“Republished?” DJ repeated, the hint of a smirk on his face.

“Republished,” Poe replied through gritted teeth.

“Mr. D-d-dameron, I am not working for Snoke.”

“Okay, but all the same, you are, and we’re prepared to pay much more than Hux or Snoke did to get our hands on that first edition they didn’t want published.”

“That would be quite a f-f-feat,” DJ hummed, lacing his fingers together over his chest, “Considering the steep amount I… _hypothetically_ received. Of course, this is if I was working for them at all.” He smirked.

“Right,” Poe nodded with a saccharine smile, “If you were.”

“Continuing this hyp-p-pothetical,” DJ drawled, “How much hyp-p-pothetical money would you be prepared... to give me?”

Poe smiled. Anyone could be bought.

Ben stepped in, taking a drag on his cigarette and flicking it out the window.

“We’ll give you a million.”

Jon’s eyebrows shot up, and Poe nearly choked. Amilyn shrugged.

“Reasonable.”

“Don’t speak,” Poe closed his eyes.

“A m-m-million dollars?” DJ’s own eyes were wide as he contemplated this, “That would give me enough to go... to live somewhere… mmm, nice." His eyes darted back up to them, serpent-like. "This book is worth a lot to you.”

“Our careers,” Poe nodded.

“Yes… well, I c-c-can’t say I have it anywhere in my immediate possession… I may need further persuasion.”

“Further than a million dollars?”

“Mmmm…” DJ’s eyes were transfixed on Poe’s chest, where the golden chain from his mother hung.

“You want…” Poe whispered, hands closing around the necklace, “You want this?” DJ shrugged.

“Material possessions are of great beauty to me… they mean almost as much to me as your careers mean t-t-to you…”

Poe swallowed, and Ben shot him a look.

“You want to know, d-d-don’t you?” DJ fixated on the chain.

“Two million,” Ben spoke up, giving Poe a look, but Poe held up a hand.

“No. Here.” He took it off. They had come this far; there was no going back. DJ grinned at the chain, and nodded, unlocking his drawer and pulling out a copy of Snoke’s novel, first edition.

“I cannot p-p-promise you will find what you are looking for…” he said, “I have not read it myself… only a couple hundred of these were printed in New York, before I could g-g-get my hands on them…” His dark eyes descended on the book, mouth quirking up. “They never wanted these to see the light of day… if I had helped them, Hux would have been right to c-c-call me. I work with many different distributors…”

“Good,” Ben nodded, inspecting the book. They may be able to get somewhere with this.  

“Remember…” DJ held up a finger, “I am not the bad guy.”

It was a cryptic statement, but nobody had the time to think it over as they took the book and left the strange publicist to stare after them thoughtfully.

“That was exciting,” Amilyn told Jon. “He acted like some crazy mob boss.”

“He did,” Jon chuckled.

"But he wasn't," Poe cut in, in case anyone was listening.  

"You enjoyed yourself then?”

Amilyn pursed her lips. “Yes.”

“Would you… like to see me again?”

Amilyn took a deep breath, then allowed herself a wide smile. “I… yes.”

Poe leaned into his manager. “Have you broken the news yet that you’ve gotta go _back_ to New York soon?”

“Don’t ruin a good thing, Poe. Not today, please.”


	6. Chapter 6

_“Finn.”_ Beep.

Finn’s eyes stared straight ahead.

 _“Finn.”_ Beep. Beep. Beep. “Finn!”

Finn jerked his head up to Rey, and blinked at the time. 2:15 AM. “Sorry. I’m phasing out here.”

“It’s easy to get lost in the beeps,” she joked, and sat down beside him. “They’re taking dad in for surgery in half an hour. Bloody finally. I had to light fires under the asses of all these useless nurses—“

“Hey, they’re just doing their job…”

“Well, they did it faster thanks to me. They still won’t tell me the odds.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah. I’m ehm… I’m gonna go get us some food while we wait, okay? I’ll head over to the 24 hour store, I can’t eat another day of cafeteria food.”

“Right,” Finn managed a laugh, “At least once the surgery’s done, we can all go home.”

Rey nodded. “One way or another.” Finn felt his breath catch, and Rey walked off, grabbing her bag. Finn waited just outside the door of their room.

“Heya.”

The writer looked up. “Hi… Rose, was your name?”

“Yep,” she nodded with a grin, “Mind if I sit down?” Finn moved over to make room, and the bubbly young woman took a seat next to him. “You’ve been here a very long time,” she started, “I figured it was time to properly introduce myself. I’m Rose, known around here as Nurse Tico.”

“Nice to formally meet you,” Finn smiled, “I’m Finn.”

“Right. I’m sorry about your dad.”

“He’s not gone yet,” Finn sighed, “There’s nothing to be sorry about, I guess.”

“That’s the spirit,” she nodded, and winced. “Sorry. I can be a bit chipper. I’ve gotten in trouble before for being too happy with the patients and the patients’ immediate family.”

Finn chuckled. “I guess it can come off as a bit apathetic.”

“Yep. It's gotta be all my years as a camp counselor when I was younger-- I’ve got to unlearn all that smiling.”

Finn laughed. “I think it’d actually be weird to see you not smiling.”

"I'm not always smiling," she told him, "I mean, I don't smile when someone _dies_." Finn raised his eyebrows at her, and she covered her mouth as they both stifled laughter. It felt good to laugh again, and Finn felt punchdrunk. Finn looked down.

“Ah... look, you do you, Rose. I think seeing your smile helps people feel a little better in this place. Hospitals can get pretty depressing-- especially after more than a few days here.”

“You think so?” she asked.

“Know so,” Finn nodded. “Don’t you ever get to do anything medical, though? You always seem to be manning reception.”

“I know,” Rose muttered, “The attendings all put me there. They say one day when there’s an opening I can start helping with patients, but for right now, I should just stay out of the way. I became a nurse to _help_ people, not to make calls. I messed up one treatment, which was a simple stitch removal, and now I've basically been blacklisted, stuck with wheeling people in and setting up their files.”

Finn hummed. “People never forget. That's something I've learned." He stared off. "Rose, you feel like being a nurse is your purpose?”  

The short brunette began to nod. “Yeah. Yeah, I do. My sister died when I was 16, and after that, I wanted to be the one who stopped those sorts of things from happening to other people. I just wish they would give me a chance again.”

Finn nodded, leaning in. “You know something?”

“What?”

“ _I_ think you’re a great nurse.”

She smiled a little. “Yeah?”

Finn nodded. “Yeah.” Suddenly, he heard her inhale sharply, and felt her lips press against his. He jerked back, and stuttered. “Uhh…”

“Oh god,” she slapped a hand over her mouth, “I… I was reading that wrong, wasn’t I?!”

“Yeah!” Finn blurted.

“Oh god I’m so sorry,” she said, covering her face, “I thought we were having a moment, like a rom-com moment, oh god!”

“Rose, Rose,” Finn put a hand on her shoulder. “Just… alright, calm down. I’m… sorry you got the wrong idea, but I’m with someone.”

"Oh. Who is she?” Rose asked. “She must be really gorgeous to be with you.”

Finn blushed. “He is." Rose’s eyes widened.

“Who is it? Tell tell, I wanna know the name so I can ship you two.”

Finn frowned a little, but figured she would probably recognize the name when he told her. “Poe Dameron. The singer.”

“Oooh, a famous one?” Rose beamed.

"Uh... yeah, you could say that.

"Sorry, don't take it personally if I’ve never heard of him. I’m more of a book girl than a singer or movie star kind of fan.”

“That’s cool. At least you’re not in on all the drama that’s hanging over him right now.”

“Wait…” Rose clutched her heart. “Waaait, your name is Finn. Your boyfriend is in a lot of drama… your last name is Skywalker… Finn Skywalker. Finn Skywalker, the one who _Snake_ Plagueis wrote FN-2187 about?!”

“Snake Plagueis?” Finn murmured.

“Yes, he’s an absolute ass!” Rose shouted, then lowered her voice as an old woman glared at her. “He blamed you for all the things he did in that book, and that big huge thing about stealing the name of his stupid book or whatever got blown out of proportion."

Finn blinked. "Um... yep. But I didn't do anything in that book, he was ly-"

"Shhh," Finn was silenced by Rose's fingertip against his lips, "I know. I know." She seemed so passionate that he wanted to laugh. "You _are_ Finn Skywalker, author of Stormy Seas and Other Metaphors, right?!”

“Yeah,” Finn nodded.

“Oh my god, you HAVE to sign my book!” she squealed, and dashed back to the front desk, digging it out of her bag, “Here, here… I absolutely loved it, this is my third time reading it.”

Finn, utterly surprised, took the book and the pen, signing his name inside the cover.

“You have no idea how much I love you,” she hissed, “Of course… like a friend. If you want to be my friend! Cause, you’re a big author and all… with a boyfriend. Oh my god, I got to kiss Finn Skywalker! Which was an accident, by the way. But it was still amazing.”

Finn chuckled, and suddenly, Rose’s pager went off, Wexely’s voice coming through.

“Nurse Tico, we need a patient wheeled in for a CAT scan, room 4.”

“Got it,” she said, and got up. “Thank you so much. I hope Snake gets what’s coming to him. Really!”

"Good luck with everything," Finn nodded back.

 _Snake Plagueis…_ he huffed a laugh, and on a whim, dug that new novel of his out of his own bag. This should be good for a laugh, at least to keep him awake at… god, it must be 3 in the morning now. Opening to page 217 of the “coveted” first edition, he scanned it, taking in a few random lines here and there. It all just seemed like more of the same…

“While it may seem that their success if my failure, it was most certainly not. They only gave me the strength to continue my career. Make it better. Grow stronger.”

 _Self-important asshole_. _Yep, more of the same…_ His breath caught, scanning over something a little out of the ordinary.

_“And that is why I chose to name this book after their ridiculous song. To bring some actual meaning to these words, without having to hear that nausea inducing melody over and over like the ticking of a maddening clock.”_

Finn slammed the book shut. Holy shit. Holy shit!

Eureka.

Meanwhile, back in LA, Poe was lying awake, restless after scanning the pages of the first edition that DJ gave him of _Way Back Into Love_ , finding nothing. He was still bitter about his necklace, but he knew his mother would have wanted this if it meant getting something he had been chasing with all of his usual tenacity. To be fair, he had only skimmed the parts of the book he had subjected himself to. He could easily try and find some little tidbit they could use against Snoke if he really looked, but it was so trying. All of it.

Tossing his forearm over his eyes, he wished the curtains of the hotel weren’t so transparent. It was impossible to block out the light, and he wasn’t having the best night anyway, so sleep wasn’t looking good for him. Just as he began to drift off in the sweet darkness his elbow provided, he heard his phone buzz.

“You’ve gotta be fuckin’ kidding me,” he groaned, and flipped over. Who could be calling him at midnight?!

“Answer, answer, answer,” Finn muttered into his cell, “Dammit Poe, it’s three hours earlier there, how old are you, 70?!”

“Hello?”

“Poe!”

“ _Agh_ … not so loud babe, what? Miss me?”

“Poe shut up, I’ve got a first edition copy of Snoke’s book!”

“Yeah, so do I, I—" Poe wrinkled his nose, sitting up. “Wait a sec, how did _you_ get it?”

“It’s out in a store here, I found it randomly, anyway, that’s not important!”

“Go on,” Poe sighed, rubbing his face.

“Go to page 219!”

“Buddy, I can’t even see a foot ahead of me this late at n—"

“Do it now!”

“Okay, alright.” Poe got out of bed, and picked up _Way Back_ , opening it to the according page. “What am I supposed to be looking for exactly?”

“Read the first passage.”

Reading it, Poe’s heart skipped a beat, and he almost forgot how to breathe. “Finn…”

“Poe!”

“Finn,” Poe began to grin, laughing, “Oh Finn, baby, we’re doin’ it!”

“We got him, Poe!”

“We got him Finn! YEAH!”

“YES!”

“WOOHOO!”

Ben knocked on the wall. “Hey, shut up! Your orgasms are even louder than mine, fuck!”

“Ben…” Poe shouted, “Get your ass in here right now!”

* * *

“Hello, this is Jon.”

Jon had the widest of smiles on his face as he paced back and forth in front of the balcony door. The morning had turned out to be a wonderful one, and while Amilyn still hadn’t called back after that date, he was nonetheless in the happiest of moods at present.

“Hi, this is Live, can I transfer you to a manager?”

“No,” Jon grinned, “Get me Kimmel.”

That night, Poe and Kylo took top priority on the show; Jimmy Kimmel had cancelled Zack Galifianakis to get them on there.

“I actually can’t believe we found a way out of this,” Ben said backstage.

“What, you didn’t think anything we were doing would work?” Poe whispered back. “You came up with the idea to go to the publisher!”

“It was a last resort, I didn’t actually think we’d find anything.”

Poe’s eyes closed, and he sighed. “Well, it doesn’t matter now. We're about to be in the clear again.”

They got the signal, and Ben smiled. “Let’s go fuck Snoke up.”

“And Hux,” Poe reminded.

“Well, I already did that,” Ben whispered, and they prepared to walk out. Meanwhile at Snoke’s high rise, he and Hux were sitting in his living room, watching the huge, flat screen TV.

“This should be a lot of fun,” Snoke smiled, taking a sip of champagne. “The final nail in the coffin, as it were.”

Hux smiled weakly. Seeing Ben up there was making his cheeks flush.

“Hi everybody, welcome to the show, we’ve got a great one for you tonight—please welcome music sensations Poe Dameron and Kylo, ladies and gentlemen!”

The two came out waving, and the audience responded with the usual applause. Poe would have dreaded yet another talk show if they didn’t have good news this time—they had done six over the past two weeks, all ending with more ridicule on social media. It was time to change that.

“How have things been for you?” Jimmy asked, humour in his tone. Poe cocked his head.

“Bad? Is that a valid answer?”

The audience laughed with Jimmy. “I feel like it is, you two have been through a heck of a lot.”

“You’re the first host who’s actually shown empathy toward us,” Poe chuckled, “So... that’s a start.”

“Well, I try to see two sides of any situation,” Jimmy nodded, “Except for the current presidential situation, but..." More laughs from the audience. "Anyway speaking of two sides, we knew this was going to be a big deal, so we created our own hashtag here, Kylo On Kimmel… hope you don’t mind, Poe, we kind of left you out there.” Poe smirked.

“It’s fine. I'm happy to say I'm used to it."

Jimmy had some pictures pulled up on the screen behind them. "So, former singer and now the face of the female Eddie Bauer collection Jessika Pava has taken to twitter to express her opinion on all of this. She used the hashtag to tweet about her experience with you, Kylo.” They both turned to see the screen, where a tweet from Ben’s ex showed up.

 “That bitch,” Ben snapped.

“Wow, harsh,” Jimmy chuckled. “Uh no, she’s actually come to your defence here, take a look."

     

 

Hux read the tweets on the screen over and over, his stomach in knots. Was she right? The past was a good thing to forget, especially when it wasn't the best experience... but it was too late for him to get cold feet now, wasn’t it?! After all of this, there was nothing anyone could do to fix this, that much was clear.

“So, as you can see,” Jimmy commented, “Pretty complimentary, huh?”

“Huh,” Ben nodded, “ I didn’t think she was capable of love.” Poe raised his eyebrows at him in warning, and Ben corrected himself. “But I’m glad we can move past it, and I’m grateful she did that for me.”

More applause from the crowd.

“Well, before we go any further, I think we all want to see what you’ve got tonight. Poe, you brought me the book.” Poe nodded, and Jimmy took out the novel from under his desk, standing it up for the cameras to see. Poe spoke.   

“This,” each camera got a different shot of it, “Is Snoke Plagueis’ book, Way Back Into Love, the book that got us into this mess in the first place.”

“And what’s so special about it?” Jimmy asked, “What’s in this that can possibly tell us Snoke’s lying?”

“This one that you have here is the first edition of Snoke’s book. It was published three months before our song came out, as a direct sequel to FN-2187. Now, this version of the book was only released in a couple of book stores in New York City, before it was recalled.”

Jimmy nodded. “Yes, I do remember the books being brought back after an initial release.”

 “Right. If you'll just flip to page 219.” Jimmy turned to the page for each camera to zoom in on, and smiled.

 “ _And that is why I chose to name this book after their ridiculous song.”_

Poe looked at the camera for Finn, smirking.  

Snoke dropped his glass as it shattered on the expensive floorboards. Hux coughed into his sleeve, hiding his relieved smile.

“Uh, if you’ll excuse me… I need to make some calls.”


	7. Chapter 7

Poe rushed through the hotel lobby. He couldn’t wait to call Finn—he had obviously watched, and he would be brutally honest with how he was on TV-- if his hair looked terrible, etc..

As he walked past reception, someone flagged him.

"Are you Mr. Dameron?"

"That's me," he nodded, frowning. The employee presented him with a box. It was small, and wrapped in thick packing tape. He found a note taped to the side.

_I admire material things. I also admire relentlessness, Mr. Dameron, and you certainly have that. I am retiring from Codebreaker and moving to Costa Rica to avoid the scandal you have created, so do not attempt to send me a thank you card._

_Just remember… I am not the bad guy._

_-DJ_

Poe’s lips parted in disbelief as he tore into it, and found his chain. Guess the million dollars was enough for the guy.

"Thanks," he mumbled to the concierge, and ran to the elevator. After putting the chain back around his neck, he got into the elevator and pulled out his phone to turn it on to check if he had any missed calls. Strangely, none.

“Oh,” the singer whispered. Luke. Luke had been going in for surgery. If he had no missed calls…

Suddenly, a message buzzed in from a couple hours earlier/ Poe jumped on it.

_Love you. Gtg for a while, won’t be available for another few hours._

Poe’s heart broke a little. Got to go for a while? No… it hadn’t been a success? Finn didn’t have to say it, he supposed… but he wanted to know for sure. He dialled. One ring. Two rings. Finn wasn’t answering. Poe pulled up Rey’s contact, and sent her a text.

_Hey Rey. What’s going on with your dad?_

No response. No response. Five minutes later, no response.

Poe exhaled, leaning against the hallway wall. His phone rang, and he shot it up to his ear.

“Baby?”

“I’m flattered, but no,” Jon’s voice sounded, “Something wrong?”

Poe was silent for a second, contemplating if he should tell. He decided against it.

“Nah. What’s up, Jon?”

“I was hoping, if you weren’t too busy celebrating with “your baby” over the phone, I could treat you to some drinks and lunch. Kylo can come too.”

Poe managed a smile. “I’ll treat, man. You’ve busted your ass for me the past couple weeks—I wanted to find some way to thank you.” He stood up. “You know, I _was_ going to get you a scented room candle with a big heart on it, though.”

“Shame, you know how much I love those,” Jon said. Poe knew he hated them, as his first ex-wife burned them all the time. 

“I’ll meet you downstairs in ten,” Poe laughed, "and return the candles later.”

\-----

Ben paced his hotel room shirtless, blatantly ignoring the “no smoking in room” sign. He was holding BB-8 against his chest, as the dog had done nothing but bark for the past hour, and Ben couldn't just leave it in there like that.

“What do you want?” he answered his phone with, dragging angrily on his cigarette.

“To talk, you imbe—plicitly wonderful human being,” Hux managed a smile on the other end.

“I haven’t talked to you for months, what makes you think I wanna do  it now?”

“So you’re not even going to hear me out? I think you owe me that.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, do I owe you something, Armie?! After what you did?!”

“Do _not_ call me Armie you insufferable twit--"

"Armie Hammer!"

"ENOUGH, you child! Now, I did not call you to grovel!” Hux sniffed. “Well, I did, but I refuse to call it that. You owe me for leaving me after that night!”

“I think I repaid you with oh, almost losing my career.”

“I said I _loved_ you!”

“And I didn’t love you back, what was I supposed to say?! I didn’t know you’d go all Fatal Attraction on me!” Ben ran a hand through his hair. “Jesus Christ, you’re extreme. Everyone says hell hath no fury like a woman’s scorn, but they obviously haven’t met fuckin’ Armitage Hux!”

“Snoke would have done it without me.”

“Yeah, but you fucking helped!”

“Shut up and listen,” Hux growled, “I am _sorry_. I am so, so sorry, and there will never be words available to me in this lifetime, no matter how literate I am, to express to you the astounding remorse I feel for being so stupidly impulsive. Not astounding in effect, astounding in how I feel it at all. I was very hurt. I deal with intense emotion this way. This aside, I cannot undo what has been done, I can never, ultimately, apologize enough for my jealous spite, but I can simply tell you again how much you mean to me, and hope to all that is true that you’ll agree.”

Ben was quiet for a second. “Alright, where the fuck is this poem coming from?”

“DAMN YOU, BEN, THAT’S YOUR ANSWER?!”

Just then, there was a knock at Ben’s partially cracked door. He looked over, quickly hiding his phone in his pants for a second, and the door opened.

“Hey,” Poe smiled, waving the clam bake of smoke from his immediate vicinity. He hesitated. "Why've you got my dog?"

"It would have been inhumane to leave it in there, it was in distress," Ben said, balancing BB-8 on his shoulder. "Doesn't mean I like it." 

"Him." Poe sighed. "Jon and I are heading out for some drinks, like a celebration type thing. You’re invited.”

 “That is extremely sweet of you, Poe. I, unfortunately, have something to take care of."

Poe raised an eyebrow at the outline of the pop star's cell in his pants. “Trying to find a way back into love?"

“I never wanna hear that stupid song again,” Ben snapped, and Poe laughed.

 _“All I wanna dooo is find a way back intooo loooove,”_ he grinned, snapping his fingers as he walked out, _“I can’t make it throoough without a waaay back into looove…”_ Ben growled, and Poe held the door as it was being slammed. "Put that out, or you'll be banned from this place too." Ben gave him the finger, and once Poe had gone, dug his phone out of his crotch.

“Did you listen to anything I just said?!” Hux was still rambling.

“My penis did,” Ben shot back. “Anyway, Hux— you’re not forgiven."

"Ben, plea--"

"Not yet. You put me through a lot of shit, just when I was getting my life back together.” He paused. “I’m at the Hollywood Roosevelt. Come and get me.”

“…G-get you?”

“You know what I mean,” Ben said bitterly, and tossed his phone to the bed, checking his hair in the mirror. “Gotta get a god damn suit on and shave,” he whispered, crushed his cigarette, and turned around. Another knock at the door, and Ben went over.

“Yeah?”

“It’s your manager, sir.”

Ben opened the door. “Oh, Moff.” BB-8 jumped down, and sniffed Moff's leg, growling.

“So… I see your career is fully operational.” He extended a bony hand. “I believe congratulations are in order. Congratulations to me, for helping you.”

“Yeah, okay… you’re fired.”

Moff pursed his lips. “You realize, Mr. Solo… we never forget in this business.”

Ben made a face. “Just don’t accuse me of any big shit, and we’re cool, okay? I’ll have you fucking killed, I swear to god.”

The room across the way opened, and Phasma, in her pajamas, tightened a fist. Moff pulled at his collar.

\----

“So.”

“So,” Poe smiled, lifting his glass, “It has been quite a time.”

“That it has, my boy,” Jon chuckled, then his smile faded. “It didn’t look good for a while.”

“Luck’s on our side,” Poe smiled, “And my boyfriend. He found the passage.”

“Speaking of your boyfriend—your brilliant, writer boyfriend-- when’s that album coming out?”

“Oh, onto business already? Just when we’re sure I’ve actually got my label back?”

“Aye, and it better be a damn good album. People have been waiting for years now to hear it.”

“Two years.”

“That’s still a long time!”

“It’s coming,” Poe nodded, taking a sip of his drink, “Finn and I've been working on it for a while now, and we just need one more song to complete it.” He readjusted himself in his seat, watching the leaves in his tea float around the surface. He hated tea.

Jon studied him. “Poe. What's killing you right now?"

“He won’t answer me,” Poe confessed, as if he had been holding it in, “His dad is in critical condition, and he won’t answer me. God, what do _you_ think it is?”  

“That does seem grim,” Jon nodded sympathetically.

“I just… I know what shit like this does to people. When my mom died, I shut down, and Finn has a tendency to…” Poe shook his head, “Well, he’s done it before, and I’m scared Jon. I’m scared that I won’t be able to bring him out of that.”

“Poe, you don’t even know if Luke’s passed away yet.”

“I can tell, I just know,” Poe groaned. “And I’ve been stuck here, I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”

“He’ll call you,” Jon said softly, “Stop jumping to conclusions. Just give him some time.” Suddenly, his eyes grew wide. “Oh, the cat ate me and the devil ate the cat…”

“What?” Poe frowned, swallowing another sip.

“It’s Amilyn.”

The hotel manager approached the table, and smiled. “Sorry to interrupt you and your, uh… oh.” She cleared her throat. “I’ll just—"

“No no,” Poe got up, “Hey, before you run off-- I was a dick to you. I didn’t know you at all, and I just…” he shook his head, “I don’t know. I was going through some stuff, I’m sorry.” He looked at her earnestly, extending a hand, "I'm not usually that much of an asshole."

She squeezed it back. “It’s okay. I understand.” She looked down. “You got your necklace back!”

“I did,” Poe smiled.

“That guy was so creepy.”

“Right?!” Poe laughed. “I guess things are turning out alright.” He smirked Jon’s way, and gave a salute. “I’ll catch you later. You two have fun.” Amilyn sat down, and grinned.

“Jon, I’m up for a transfer.”

Jon coughed, then put a hand on his chest. “To…”

“New York,” she smiled. Suddenly, the smile disappeared. “Unless… I’m being too forward. It’s just that I’m normally so closed off—I think I’ve gotten called a stone cold bitch at least eight times in my life, and I’m sure Poe would agree, no matter what he says. I don't call people back after dates, because I don't believe anyone actually enjoys my company."

"But I did!"

"Jon, normally nobody gets me out of my shell, and you’re a complete hippy, I thought you wouldn’t want my kind of lifestyle…” She looked down. “I can stay here if you don’t feel the same way.”

“You know what I think?” Jon asked, resting his elbow on the table. “I think the stone cold bitch and the middle aged hippy are the perfect case of opposites attract.”

She smiled a little, shyly. “Even with my… purple hair?”

“ _Especially_ with your purple hair, love." Jon thought of something. "One question, though-- how do you feel about skydiving?"

\----

Poe headed back to the hotel, humming the tune to the last song he had in his mind for the album. Finn still had to review the words he had come up with, because they had made a deal never to directly record _any_ of Poe’s writing, but they could worry about that at home. Poe’s stomach filled with worry as he thought of Finn, probably crying. He needed to be there for him, and he would be tomorrow, as soon as he got off the flight they had booked.

It was so late… he had to get some sleep if he was going to be up early enough to catch his flight. Ben was sticking around here for a while to do a couple shows, but Poe needed to get back as soon as possible. Ben understood.

Opening the door, Poe took off his black jacket to throw on the bed, but found… a brown one, already laid out.

“Thought you’d be in bed by now, Dameron.”

Poe whipped around, and saw Finn leaning against the wall, arms crossed. He let out a cry, and rushed him, throwing his arms around his boyfriend and attacking him with a hug. Finn’s eyebrows raised at the force, but chuckled as he was yanked to the bed by Poe, both of them toppling over each other in a desperate mess of limbs, kisses, and affection.

“How… how how _how_ did you get here?” Poe repeated, kissing Finn’s cheek, his neck, his chest. Finn grinned.

“Took a flight this morning. What, didn’t you catch that when I said I couldn’t talk for a few hours?”

Poe’s eyes widened. “I thought you-!” He stopped. “Wait a minute, you’re grinning. Finn, you’re grinning!”

“Uh… yeah?”

“Luke’s okay!”

Understanding crossed Finn’s face. “Yeah. He’s okay.”

Poe kissed him again, and they both laughed together, tears gathering in their eyes.

“I tried so hard to stay strong, buddy,” Poe breathed.

“We both did,” Finn nodded, holding Poe against him.

“I tried to hold it together, it was so fucking hard--”

“I know. I know.”

“Although…” Poe murmured, “Being all lost in emotion and stuff, all alone over here on the west coast, really gave me good song inspiration.”

“I’m glad,” Finn smiled, “I’ve got a few lines we can use too.”

They kissed one more time, as if they were scared the other would disappear if they let go or closed their eyes, but the moment was interrupted by the door.

“Oh my god,” Poe shook his head, “I hate that guy so much right now.”

“It’s not Kylo,” Finn grinned, and launched himself off the bed.

“Room service!” a female voice trilled, and Poe got up too, padding over to the door.

“No…” He opened it, and Rey beamed at him.

“Poe!”

“Hi,” Poe hugged her, Rey burying her face in his neck. She was there, Finn was there... he was actually hugging them, they were real. "I can't believe you two came."

“Ooh, I wanna say hi too!” a deeper voice came out, and Rey pulled out her phone, still grinning. On the screen was a face time with Luke, who was in bed.

“Unreal,” Poe shook his head, taking the phone, “Man, you did it.”

“So did you!” Luke smiled, “Oh, we were watching all the talk shows, following all the news, it was all so exciting to keep up with. You certainly earned this, Poe. I’m so proud of you.” Poe felt a lump in his throat at that.

“I mean it,” Luke said, and Poe took a deep breath, nodding.

“You good?” he asked in turn, sitting down on the bed. Luke nodded.

“Oh, I’m okay. Not great. Still laid up. But hey—I survived. We all survived this fiasco.” Rey kissed Poe’s cheek, and Finn kissed the other as Luke cooed.  “Awww… now how do you take a screenshot on this thing? It’s too darn cute not to keep this…”

“Hold the home button and the power—"

“The what?”

“The circle at the bottom and the bar."

“Okay, I think I’ve got it… oops, I…” Luke’s end suddenly went black, and Rey rolled her eyes.

“I’ll call him back."

Finn looked at his boyfriend. "Would you excuse us? We'll catch up with dad in the morning... right now, I want him to myself."

Rey nodded, and wiggled her eyebrows. "You two have a good night.”  

“Get out, Rey,” Finn said. She swung her hips around, pushing her finger through a hole she’d made with her other hand, and Poe nodded, making blow-job gestures.

“I hate you both,” Finn groaned, and tossed a pillow at Rey as she dashed out the door. Poe came back to the bed.

“Why’s your shirt still on?”

“That’s a damn good question,” he nodded, and making up for lost time, they shared another kiss.


	8. Chapter 8

Poe and Finn returned the next day together to New York with BB-8, then got down to writing down the words to their last song.

After tying up some loose ends, Jon and Amilyn also headed back to NYC, Amilyn taking a job at the Roosevelt’s New York hotel as manager. They haven’t moved in together yet, but they meet up every weekend for “break the bed” sex at the hotel. They both want to go skydiving together, but they’re both waiting for the other to propose the idea.

Ben and Hux spent the night together in LA in Ben’s hotel room—they both undressed and everything, (Hux in some very racy black “make-up sex” panties) but spent the night talking instead. Tears were shed, cuddling ensued, and both will send Phasma after anyone who leaks that information. About a month later, the two now living together, Leia called Ben, and asked him over for Sunday dinner. Ben said no… until he said yes. Han and Ben talked things out, and more tears were shed. Han confessed that he actually kind of liked Ben’s music… Ben confessed that Han’s haircut was actually really bad. 

Luke moved into Rey’s old apartment, so she could go to school full time and he could be a little closer to civilization. His favourite place to go now is Maz’s Diner, where he has found companionship in her. (“One surgery?! Oh, that’s nothing. I’ve had my tonsils removed, my wisdom teeth, my spleen, my appendix—" "Maz, that doesn’t count.” “It sure does!”) Maz makes it to a lot of family dinners now, just so she can learn with Luke how to use a phone properly. Rey has one more year of school left, and at her rate, her instructors predict she’ll be on her first mission to space not long after that.

Most importantly, Snoke was taken to small claims court for defamation, and was sued for three quarters of a million, which was mostly donated to charity, and somewhat making up for the money lost to DJ. Evidently, DJ was also caught in the implications… he was so close to Costa Rica too. Snoke was also blacklisted within the entertainment business… he couldn’t even find a publisher for his third book, “The Blame Game: Hollywood’s War On Me.”

Now, Poe finally finished his new album, which was named as a combination of both his work in the past and Finn’s—“Stormpilot”. He was booked for a world tour, and Finn couldn’t wait to come with him. In addition to writing for Poe’s music, Finn will start as a high school English teacher once he gets back from his boyfriend’s tour—not finding much fulfillment in his own writing, he was able to find a lot in helping kids like him do it.

** January  **

The New York audience screamed, and Poe looked out over their faces. Everyone seemed like they were genuinely ecstatic to be there—it always humbled him, thinking about his fans. Thinking about how they were there to share something he created with someone who meant so much to him. It was an amazing feeling.

In the third row of the concert, sitting beside Hux, Ben glared down at the dog currently chewing on his ankle.

“I hate this thing.”

“After all these years, this thing still understands you,” Han grinned, encouraging Chewie. Leia slapped his arm, so Han rolled his eyes and picked the little brown fuzzball up.

Poe finished the last few lines of “Sweet Forever”, leaving Finn’s face streaked with tears backstage.

“Hey everyone. It’s so cool that I get to be back here at Madison Square Gardens,” Poe said into the microphone, “Um… about two years ago, I thought I was slowly fading out of the public eye, which was cool—I had my loyal fans, and I was good with it. But then… some crazy guy with a really deep voice asked me if I wanted to do a collaboration.” The crowd went wild. “So I was up here with my good buddy Kylo—“ More screaming—“Singing a song that ended up getting us _way_ more than we bargained for, specifically these past few weeks.” He laughed. “Now, I've got a thing called twitter? And like... people tweet at me and stuff? It's really crazy, I'm still learning how to turn it on, but Finn and I just wanted to thank you all so much for all the love we're getting."

 The applause roared, and Poe placed a hand over his heart as he saw a "LOVE WINS" sign waving in the back of the stadium. Poe wished his dad could see that sign, and truly understand what it meant.

"It's... it means so much guys, really," he smiled, eyes welling up. "But back during the past few weeks, things fell apart a little with my guy—just like when we were writing Way Back. But me and Finn… like we always do, we found each other through it all again.” The crowd went even more wild at the mention of the most popular song on his new album, and after sending a quick kiss to Finn in the wings, he began to play.

_“Baby… you know I miss you so much._

_You’ve been gone for far too long_

_And oh, I miss your touch_

_Baby… you know I love you so much._

_I know you keep calling_

_And I keep crawling_

_Can we stand up without falling?_

_Laying here_

_So far away and blue_

_Such a long way_

_I pretend I’m holding you..._

He went into the chorus, looking at Finn in the wing. _“And when the hardest times in life,_

_Bring you darkness, fear, and strife,_

_I’ll be there_

_Through it all_

_When we’re apart_

_Right from the very start_

_I’ll still be there_

_Through it all.”_

Finn mouthed the words with him, and Poe smiled, turning back to the audience. With his Finn, he’d always find his way back into love... no matter the situation, no matter the song.  

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dedicated to our princess, Carrie Fisher ❤
> 
> I love comments, and you can also come talk to me @ hearteyesdameron on tumblr!


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